Home prices up; last time was ’06

MIAMI – Home prices in February posted their first annual increase since the end of 2006, lifted by temporary tax credits for homebuyers. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday squeezed out a 0.6 percent gain. But that was half the increase analysts had expected. On a more cautionary note, 11 of the 20 cities tracked by the index showed declines from February last year.