US home prices rise 5.1 percent in October

U.S. home prices rose again in October as buyers bidding for scarce properties drove prices higher.

The Standard & Poor's CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.1 percent in October from a year earlier after rising 5 percent in September. Prices for the 20 cities are still 7.1 percent below their July 2006 peak.

Prices rose 10.7 percent annually in Seattle, 10.3 percent in Portland and 8.3 percent in Denver. New York registered the smallest year-over-year gain: 1.7 percent.

Home sales and prices have been helped by healthy demand, tight supplies and low mortgage rates. But the cheap loans may be vanishing. The rate on the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage last week reached 4.30 percent, the highest since April 2014.