San Diego County home prices rose 10 percent in February over the previous year, according to a recent study by S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. The increase can be mostly attributed to heightened demand and low inventory.

The index also indicated that year-over-year prices were up 9 percent across the nation, the largest year-over-year increase since the middle of 2006. The index studies 20 major metropolitan real estate markets.

“Home prices continue to show solid increases across all 20 cities,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee. “Despite some recent mixed economic reports for March, housing continues to be one of the brighter spots in the economy.”

Economic blips included the beginning of government spending cuts commonly called the sequester.

In addition to large gains in San Diego, other hard-hit metro areas like Phoenix and Las Vegas continue to see encouraging upticks.

Local home prices continue their ascent toward pre-recession levels. Last month, we told you that December home prices were 9 percent higher than 12 months previous. And now, the newest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reports a 10 percent rise in year-over-year prices in January.

Home values actually declined a bit from December (0.6 percent) but analysts seem unconcerned with that figure. The 10 percent rise represents the seventh straight month that the county has posted a year-over-year price increase.

Nationally, the 20 cities and metro areas examined in the study all reported year-over-year increases, with an average of 8.1 percent improvement. This mark is the highest national year-over-year increase since June 2006. Phoenix—which was ravaged by the foreclosure crisis of the past several years—witnessed the sharpest increase, boosting an enormous 23.2 percent.

“Economic data continues to support the housing recovery,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a written statement included in the report. “Single-family home building permits and housing starts posted double-digit year-over-year increases in February 2013.

“Despite a slight uptick in foreclosure filings,” he continued. “Numbers are still down 25 percent year-over-year. Steady employment and low borrowing rates pushed inventories down to their lowest post-recession levels.”

La Jolla-based DataQuick is reporting that the median home price for San Diego County in February has increased 17.7 percent over February 2012. Home sales, totaling 2,779, were also up 2.6 year-over-year. This was the largest number for the month since 2007.

Investors and cash buyers continue to have a heavy influence in local real estate transactions. Absentee buyers—usually investors—accounted for 31 percent of sales in February, up 1 percent from the previous year. Cash buyers comprised 35.6 percent of the transactions, up 1.6 percent from both January 2013 and February 2012.

Experts caution that early year real estate figures are unreliable for forecasting the rest of the year, due mostly to small sample size. Instead, analysts like DataQuick president John Walsh, suggest that the number of homes listed in the next two months will provide a better indicator.

“More people who’ve long been thinking of selling will be tempted to list their homes at today’s higher prices,” said Walsh. “A meaningful rise in the supply of homes on the market should at least tame price appreciation.”

As I previously discussed in this article, many counties across California have been considering an increase in certain real estate filing fees to fund the state’s real estate fraud investigation unit.

This increase may be coming the San Diego soon, but it’s definitely coming to Riverside County. The board of supervisors voted unanimously to raise the fee for filing and recording real estate documents from $6 to $10. The fee had been raised from $3 to $6 only a month earlier. The change will go into effect on March 26, and is expected to remain in effect until at least 2017.

The tripled fee will help fund the fraud investigation team, who is tasked with investigating and prosecuting real estate fraud in the state as an extension of the district attorney’s office.

San Diego County homes sales prices in December were up 9 percent from last year, according to S&P/Case-Shiller. That represents the highest year-over-year increase in the county since July 2010. It also marks the eleventh straight month of increases.

Home prices roses for 19 of the 2o markets surveyed by the study, and the total index figure rose by 6.8 percent when compared to December 2011. Only New York City posted a decline—0.5 percent.

“Housing and residential construction led the [national] economy in the 2012 fourth quarter,” noted index committee chairmen David M. Blitzer.

The booming prices in San Diego are likely attributed to low housing inventory. It’s widely believed that many sellers are waiting for the market to further recover before listing their homes. This includes many potential sellers who owe more than their home is worth. A strong market recovery could see them regaining equity in their homes, rather than forcing them to sell at a loss.

According the DataQuick, the median price for a home sold in January was $350,000, which is an increase of 15 percent over January 2011. That is still 32 percent below the high pair of $517,500 achieved in November 2005.