The CoreLogic Home Price Index, which includes sales of distressed homes, lost 0.1 percent from November to December, but the 11 percent year-over-year increase represented the 22nd???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+consecutive month that prices were higher than in the same month the previous year. Despite only moderate gains in residential construction, home prices have not increased at such a rapid pace since 2005, at the height of the housing boom.

While home prices dipped slightly in December, prices from December 2012 to December 2013 increased by 11 percent, the highest annual increase since 2005, according to housing market analysis firm CoreLogic.

"Last year, home prices rose 11 percent, the highest rate of annual increase since 2005, and ten states and the District of Columbia reached new all-time price peaks," said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. "We expect the???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+rising prices???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+to attract more sellers, unlocking this pent-up supply, which will have a moderating effect on prices in 2014."

CoreLogic projects that January's home prices, including distressed sales, will increase 10.2 percent compared to January 2013 and will ease back by 0.8 percent from December to January. ???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+Excluding distressed sales January 2014 home prices are poised to rise 9.7 percent year-over-year and 0.2 percent month-over-month.

"The healthy and broad-based gains in home prices in 2013 help set the stage for a???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+continued recovery???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+in the housing sector in 2014," CoreLogic CEO and president Anand Nallathambi told MarketWatch. "After six years of fits and starts, we can now see a clear path to a durable recovery in single-family residential housing across most of the United States."