Oregon led the nation in home-price appreciation, and the Bend-Redmond area was among the top 20 metropolitan areas last year, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Overall, U.S. house prices rose 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the FHFA’s House Price Index. House prices rose 6.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015.

The index is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“Although interest rates rose sharply during the fourth quarter, our data show no signs of a home price slowdown,” FHFA Deputy Chief Economist Andrew Leventis stated in a press release. “Although it will certainly take more time for the full effects of the elevated interest rates to be felt, there is no evidence of a normalization in the unusually low inventories of homes available for sale, which has been the primary force behind the extraordinary price gains.”

House-price appreciation in Oregon over the year was 11 percent, followed by Colorado, 10.6 percent, Florida, 10.4 percent, Washington, 10.2 percent, and Nevada, 8.9 percent.

The metro area with the fastest appreciation in 2016 was Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida, where prices rose 13.2 percent. The Seattle and Portland areas ranked second and third, respectively.

The Bend-Redmond area ranked eighth in the nation with 10.88 percent appreciation over the year. Another Oregon metro area, Salem, was sixth in the nation, with prices rising 11.14 percent.

— From staff reports