U.S. home prices rose 13% over year, Feds see no sign of real estate peak

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9157590/

WASHINGTON - Average U.S. home prices jumped 13.4 percent from April 2004 through this June, the biggest increase for a comparable period in more than a quarter-century, federal regulators reported Thursday.

The figures released by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the agency that oversees mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were the latest affirmation of the housing boom that has pushed home sales to record highs as prices have surged.

“There is no evidence here of prices topping out,” the agency’s chief economist, Patrick Lawler, said in a statement. “On the contrary, house-price inflation continues to accelerate, as some areas that have experienced relatively slow (price) appreciation are picking up steam.”

Average home prices rose 13.4 percent on an annualized basis from the second quarter of 2004 through the second quarter of this year, the largest four-quarter increase since the second quarter of 1979, the new report showed. Prices gained 3.2 percent in the latest April-June period for an annual rate of 12.8 percent. Home prices continued to grow the fastest in the Pacific region and the slowest in the area that includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, according to the report. It said that prices in Arizona and Nevada continue to show “striking appreciation rates.”

over a millions units destroyed.