Home prices rose in August

Home prices rose in August as fewer homes were available for sale amid growing demand.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 5.1 percent, after posting a solid 5 percent gain in July, according to a report released on Tuesday. 

{mosads}Portland, Seattle and Denver reported the highest year-over-year gains among in each of the last seven months with increases of 11.7 percent, 11.4 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively.

Steady jobs growth, rising wages and historically low mortgage rates are bolstering the housing market’s gradual recovery. 

Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist for Trulia, said the latest figures “suggest housing price trajectory is picking up again, as it was the second month where price growth was larger than the previous month.”

“Earlier this year, price growth slid for five consecutive months and raised questions about where home prices were heading,”  McLaughlin said. “We’re now seeing a reversing of that trend.”

A separate report last week showed that housing inventory at the end of September rose 1.5 percent to 2.04 million existing homes available for sale, but is still 6.8 percent lower than a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. 

There are only a 4.5-month supply of homes at the current pace of sales, which is down from 4.6 months in August.

Meanwhile, single-family housing starts rose 8.1 percent to a rate of 783,000 in September, which is still below the healthy average of 1 million starts, according to the Commerce Department.

Frst-time buyers made up 34 percent of sales in September, the highest level since July 2012.

About half of all U.S. homes are part of the Case-Shiller index.