The numbers: The S&P/Case-Shiller national index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in the three-month period ending in January, and was up 6.2% compared to a year before. The 20-city index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8% for the month, and 6.4% for the year.

What happened: Prices are still on fire. And the West is still the best: Seattle, Las Vegas and San Francisco all notched double-digit yearly price gains. Only one city, Washington, D.C., had a negative monthly reading.

As David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, noted in a release, the price gains are all about demand and lack of supply.

“The current months-supply — how many months at the current sales rate would be needed to absorb homes currently for sale — is 3.4; the average since 2000 is 6.0 months, and the high in July 2010 was 11.9,” Blitzer wrote. “Currently, the homeowner vacancy rate is 1.6% compared to an average of 2.1% since 2000; it peaked in 2010 at 2.7%. Despite limited supplies, rising prices and higher mortgage rates, affordability is not a concern.”

Relatively affordable housing is cold comfort to many would-be home buyers who simply can’t find anything to buy.

Read: Most house hunters have been searching for 3 months or more

Big picture: Economists had forecast a 0.7% monthly increase, and a 6.2% 12-month increase, for the 20-city index. As MarketWatch has reported, most housing analysts have argued that the ongoing price gains in housing can’t last — and yet they have so far.

Metro	Monthly change	12-month change
Atlanta	0.7%	6.5%
Boston	0.2%	5.3%
Charlotte	0.4%	6.0%
Chicago	0.0%	2.4%
Cleveland	0.0%	3.5%
Dallas	0.2%	6.9%
Denver	0.7%	7.6%
Detroit	0.1%	7.6%
Las Vegas	0.6%	11.1%
Los Angeles	0.6%	7.6%
Miami	0.6%	4.0%
Minneapolis	0.1%	5.9%
New York	0.0%	5.2%
Phoenix	0.3%	5.9%
Portland	0.4%	7.1%
San Diego	0.8%	7.4%
San Francisco	0.4%	10.2%
Seattle	0.7%	12.9%
Tampa	0.4%	6.7%
Washington	-0.4%	2.4%

Read: Mortgage rates edge up even as trade war worries loom ahead