Home prices continued to pick up more steam in the CoreLogic HPI, rising to their highest mark in nearly seven years in February.

Home prices nationwide rose a sterling 10.2 percent year-over-year in February, according to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Index.

A leading measure on home price activity, the Home Price Index has been rising with impressive strength for a full year now, and February’s 10.2 percent increase represents the Index’s strongest yearly increase since May 2006. Price were even up on a monthly basis, rising 0.5 percent from January to February in what is typically a slow market period for home prices.

As impressive as February’s numbers are, though, CoreLogic is expecting even better things for March. According to its Pending HPI, which collects MLS data to predict the next Home Price Index, home prices will rise 11.4 percent year-over-year in March, and 2.0 percent from February.

Locally, though, prices continued to struggle in Illinois and the Chicagoland area. For the Chicago metro area, home prices were up just 0.3 percent year-over-year in February, though when distressed sales are excluded, prices were up 6.9 percent. Statewide, the situation was similar – with distressed sales, prices were down 1.0 percent (Delaware and Alabama were the only other states in the U.S. to post negative returns), but without distressed sales, prices were up 4.8 percent.

Interested in tracking the Home Price Index’s progress? See our infographic below for some perspective: