The Bend area ranked 12th out of 271 metro areas nationwide for the highest rate of house price appreciation in 2015, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index.

An FHFA report released Thursday showed house prices in the Bend-Redmond Metropolitan Statistical Area, basically all of Deschutes County, rose 12.24 percent in the 12 months ending in December. Over five years, house prices were up 56.58 percent, according to the FHFA.

The Bend MSA ended the third-quarter of 2015 with the eighth-highest level of price appreciation at 13.18 percent for the 12 months ending Sept. 30.

The metropolitan area with the largest 2015 gain in home prices was North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida, where prices increased by 15.7 percent. Metro areas in Nevada, California and Colorado and one more in Florida rounded out the top five, according to the FHFA. The Portland MSA, including Hillsboro and Vancouver, Washington, ranked 10th with a 12.38 percent increase in house prices.

Overall, U.S. house prices rose 1.4 percent in the fourth-quarter 2015, the 18th consecutive quarterly rise in the FHFA House Price Index. The index is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the FHFA.

“Instability in financial markets did not seem to put much of a drag on home prices in the fourth quarter,” FHFA Supervisory Economist Andrew Leventis said in the report. “The fourth quarter 1.4 percent increase for the U.S. was in line with the extremely steady — but historically elevated — appreciation rates we have been observing for several years now.”