The Standard & Poor's CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 0.1% in February compared to the previous month. This is the first time in eight months that home prices have risen.

Despite the weakness on the West Coast, home prices were generally up as prices in the Sun Belt continued to appreciate strongly.

All figures are seasonally adjusted.

Year-on-year prices rose by 0.4 per cent, but the rate of appreciation slowed from 2.6 per cent last month. the 20-city index peaked in June 2022.

The broader measure of house prices, the national index, rose by 0.2 per cent in February and by 2 per cent over the past year. The annual increase is the smallest in 11 years - since 2012.

Key details: Miami, Tampa and Atlanta continued to lead the 20 cities with the highest year-over-year gains in February.

West Coast cities, from Las Vegas to San Francisco, continued to see weak home price growth. Home prices in San Francisco were down 10 per cent from last February.

A separate report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency showed that home prices rose in February, up 0.5 per cent from the previous month.

This compares with a 4% increase in the Federal Housing Finance Agency's index over the past year.

The Big Picture: Despite rising mortgage rates and an uncertain economic environment, house prices are still rising for two reasons: a lack of inventory and strong growth in the Sunbelt.

The low number of homes for sale has brought back bidding wars in some parts of the country. And in the Sun Belt, strong demand continues to keep prices from falling. Standard & Poor's said that house prices in the region's southeast alone had increased by 7.8 per cent.

But prices are falling in other parts of the country, particularly in the expensive west coast market. S&P said house prices across the region had fallen by 4.2 per cent.

What does S&P say? "The results released today pre-date the disruption in the commercial banking sector that began in early March," said Craig J. Lazzara, managing director of S&P DJI.

"While forecasts are mixed, so far the Fed appears focused on its goal of lowering inflation, which suggests that interest rates are likely to remain high, at least in the short term," he added.

As a result, "the outlook for mortgage financing and a weaker economy is likely to remain a headwind for home prices, at least for the next few months," Lazzara said.

What are they saying?In a note, CoreLogic chief economist Selma Hepp said the increase in the index, after seven consecutive months of declines, "suggests that house prices have bottomed out nationwide."

"Even in markets where prices have fallen the most since last year's peak, such as San Francisco, house prices picked up pace in February," she added.

The recovery in home prices suggests that "the housing market is stabilising" and "while this is good news from an economic perspective, it is still bad news for the Fed's attempts to cool the US housing market," Giampiero Fuentes, an economist at Raymond James, wrote in a note.

"While higher mortgage rates have weakened the US housing market, the impact on house prices has remained limited, which continues to support our view that this will keep the Fed from easing monetary policy for longer than the market expects," he added.