Prices have risen strongly thus far in 2014, and April only continued that hot streak.

Chicagoland’s home price increases in 2014 continued in April, with asking prices rising 12.8 percent yearly and 4.1 percent quarterly, according to the latest Price Monitor from Trulia; that quarterly increase was the third strongest among large metro areas, and was in addition to a strong 4.7 percent yearly increase in asking rents.

There’s More to Housing than Price

In comments accompanying the Price Monitor, Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko made a very important point – home prices alone will not lift the housing market out of its current levels.

Though home price increases are certainly a good thing – just ask the four million homeowners who were lifted out of negative equity in 2013 – there are more components to housing that must improve, particularly construction, before the market can be truly “recovered.” As Kolko put it, “Big price rebounds are no guarantee that a local housing market has recovered. In fact, construction permit data for 2013 – released last week by the Census – shows that markets with the sharpest price rebounds are still lagging in construction activity.”

See our graph below to find out how Chicagoland’s price increases compared with both the national market and other large metro areas: