By Steve Goldstein
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Home prices climbed a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in December to take the annual gain to 5.5%, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Tuesday. In the fourth quarter, prices rose 1.4%, and increased in 38 states and Washington D.C., FHFA said.The data is compiled using only mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; also, unlike Case-Shiller, it uses only one rather than three months of transactions.
