San Francisco home prices jump over 10 percent amid inventory shortage

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KGO) -- Good news if you own a home in the Bay Area, but not so much if you're trying to buy one. Home prices in the U.S. jumped in January, according to a new report.

The report shows home prices in San Francisco rose more than 10-percent in the new year.

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Standard & Poor's revealed its S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index climbed 6.2 percent in January from a year earlier. That nearly matches December's 6.3 percent gain, which had been the fastest 12-month growth in nearly three years. The price of houses is easily outpacing wage growth and inflation.

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Home prices rose 12.9 percent in Seattle, 11.1 percent in Las Vegas and 10.2 percent in San Francisco.

Chicago and Washington D.C. posted the weakest annual home-prices gains at 2.4 percent. Homes for sale are scarce. It would take just 3.4 months to snap up the supply of available homes at the current sales rate, down from an average since 2000 of six months.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.