U.S. home prices increased at a solid clip in December, helped by a healthy job market and low mortgage rates.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier, same as the annual increase in November.

Prices rose 11.4 percent in Portland, Oregon; 10.3 percent in San Francisco and 10.2 percent in Denver. Washington, District of Columbia, registered the lowest annual increase, at just 1.7 percent.

In December, the index reached the highest level since February 2008 — but it remained nearly 12 percent below its July 2006 peak.

No market in Southwest Florida is included in the Case-Shiller measure. Florida is represented by the Tampa and Miami markets, which saw an increase of 6.9 and 7.1 percent, respectively which includes property purchased by Florida land trusts. 

Mortgage rates remain near historic lows more than two months after the Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates for the first time since 2006. Unemployment has fallen to an eight-year low, at 4.9 percent.

David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones, said steady price increases would encourage builders to start putting up more new homes. Last year, construction companies broke ground on 1.1 million properties and home sites, the most since 2007.

Builders have been focusing on apartment complexes to take advantage of rising rents. But the real estate data firm Zillow said Tuesday that growth in home-rental prices slowed in January, rising a seasonally adjusted 2.9 percent from a year earlier and cooling even in hot markets such as San Francisco and Denver.

To learn more about the SWFL real estate market, visit 9 Core Realty on the web!