US home prices rise in December

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. home prices increased at a steady 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.

Portland, San Francisco and Denver all registered double-digit annual price increases.

The index is still more than 11 percent below its mid-2006 peak.

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 4.9 percent, lowest in nearly eight years.