CoreLogic’s Home Price Index has been on a tear the last year, and its findings for March 2013 were its strongest findings yet.

The March CoreLogic Home Price Index put up its best numbers yet in the housing recovery, with home prices increasing 10.5 percent year-over-year for the charmed month.

That’s the largest yearly increase for home prices in seven years, and the 13th consecutive month of national increases. In fact, home prices even rose month-to-month, hopping 1.9 percent from February to March.

CoreLogic Home Price Index – Strengthening With Time

Mark Fleming, the chief economist for CoreLogic, said March’s data was significant in additional ways.

“For the first time since March 2006, both the overall index and the index that excludes distressed sales are above 10 percent year over year,” Fleming said . “The pace of appreciation has been accelerating throughout 2012 and so far in 2013 leading into the homebuying season.”

Other highlights in CoreLogic’s report included:

• Though four states still showed annual home price declines when distressed sales were included – Delaware (-3.7 percent), Alabama (-3.1 percent), Illinois (-1.8 percent) and West Virginia (-0.3 percent) – no states showed such pricing patterns when distressed sales were excluded.
• Meanwhile, other states put up some truly stratospheric year-over-year numbers, with Nevada (+22.2 percent) and California (+17.2 percent) leading the pack.

Interested in tracking how far the Home Price Index has progressed in the last year? See our infographic below for some perspective – and take notice of how much the yearly increases have grown.