Dive Brief:

• Home prices continued their slow-but-steady incline in February, increasing by 5.6% compared with February 2014, according to CoreLogic’s February Home Price Index. From January to February 2015, home prices rose by 1.1%.

• Low-end home prices grew by 9.3% year-over-year, compared with 4.8% for high-end homes, “a gap that is three times the average historical difference,” the report said.

• Over the past few months, a dwindling supply of affordable housing inventory has put upward pressure on home values in lower price ranges, the report said.

Dive Insight:

Despite 36 straight months of year-over-year home price gains, housing values remain 12.2% lower than their April 2006 peak. Still, CoreLogic projected another modest increase from February to March and a 5% growth in prices over the next year.

“This is the hottest home price appreciation prior to the spring selling season in nine years,” Anand Nallathambi, CoreLogic’s president and CEO, said in the report. He predicted a “benign interest rate environment” and strong consumer confidence, which will continue to push home prices upward.