MN, US home prices rise by most in 7 years

U.S. home prices jumped 12.1 percent in April from a year ago, buoyed by strong demand and a limited supply of available homes. Strong gains in a wide range of cities point to a broad-based housing recovery.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index also showed a 2.5 percent increase in April from March, the biggest month-over-month gain on records dating back to 2000.

The new numbers provide further evidence of improvements in the Twin Cities housing market. Metro home prices in April were up 15 percent from the same month last year. That was the Twin Cities' largest year-over-year spike recorded in the index.

David Blitzer, chair of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones, says the housing recovery "is definitely broad-based."

Some fear of rising mortgage rates could damage the housing rebound, added. But easier credit might mean more people can get mortgages, which will bolster the recovery.

All cities except Detroit posted gains in April from March. That's up from only 15 cities in the previous months.

Prices rose from a year earlier in all 20 cities for the fourth straight month. Twelve cities posted double-digit gains.

San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Atlanta posted the largest year-over-year price gains. All were over 20 percent.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.