U.S. Home Prices Accelerate In November

Washington (AP) – U.S. home prices accelerated in November compared with a year ago, pushed higher by rising sales and a tighter supply of available homes.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.5 percent in November compared with the same month a year ago. That's up from a 4.3 percent annual gain in October.

The biggest yearly gain was in Phoenix, where prices jumped nearly 23 percent. Prices in San Francisco increased 12.7 percent.

Prices also increased in half of the cities measured by the index in November from October. That's up from seven in October. The biggest monthly gains were in San Francisco, Phoenix and Minneapolis.

Monthly prices are not seasonally adjusted and frequently decline during the winter.