Home prices in the United States rose for the 36th consecutive month in February, but the increases continue to moderate. Compared with February of 2014, home prices rose 5.6%, including the sales of distressed properties. Month over month, February home prices rose by 1.1% from January prices, identical with the increase from December to January.

The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were Nevada (35.4%), Florida (32.4%), Rhode Island (29.6%), Arizona (28.4%) and Connecticut (24.7%). The data were released Tuesday by research firm CoreLogic. Peak home prices occurred in April 2006.

Including sales of distressed properties, the five states posting the largest year-over-year price increases in February were Colorado (9.8%), South Carolina (9.3%), Michigan (8.5%), Texas (8.5%) and Wyoming (8.4%).

Excluding sales of distressed properties, the five states posting the biggest price increases over the past 12 months were South Carolina (9.7%), New York (9.2%), Colorado (9.0%), Texas (7.9%) and Florida (7.8%).

CoreLogic’s CEO said:

This is the hottest home price appreciation prior to the spring selling season in nine years. Assuming a benign interest rate environment and continued strong consumer confidence, we expect home prices to rise by an additional five percent over the next twelve months.

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CoreLogic has forecast that home prices will rise 0.6% month-over-month in March and rise by 5.1% for the 12 months between February 2015 and February 2016. Both projections include distressed sales.

Home prices for low-end homes have grown at nearly double the rate of growth for high-end homes, up 9.3% compared with a rise of 4.8% on high-end homes. CoreLogic’s chief economist noted that a decline in the “affordable inventory has led to a stabilization in home price growth.”

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