US house prices continue to accelerate at the start of 2022

House price inflation continued quickening last month according to the results of a closely-followed survey.

"Last fall we observed that home prices, although continuing to rise quite sharply, had begun to decelerate," said Craig J.Lazarra, Managing Director at S&P DJI.

"Even that modest deceleration was on pause in January. The 19.2% year-over-year change for January was the fourth-largest reading in 35 years of history."

In seasonally adjusted terms, the annual rate of increase in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index picked up from a 18.9% pace for December to 19.2% in January.

The year-on-year rate of increase for a sub-index covering the country's 20 largest cities meanwhile rose from 18.6% to 19.1% (consensus: 20.7%).

Versus the prior month, home prices were were up by 1.4%.

Of the 20 cities surveyed, the largest increases in prices were seen in Phoenix and Tampa and Miami, with gains of 32.6%, 30.8% and 28.1%, respectively.