U.S. house prices rose 4.4 percent in the 12 months through September as the housing market recovers from a six-year slump, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

Prices climbed 0.2 percent from August, the FHFA said Tuesday in a report from Washington. That was below the 0.4 percent average estimate of 14 economists in a Bloomberg survey.

U.S. home values have increased this year as improving employment and record-low borrowing costs bolster demand and buyers compete for a tightening supply of available properties. An S&P/Case-Shiller index of prices in 20 U.S. cities rose 3 percent in September from a year earlier, the most since July 2010, the group said Tuesday.

In the third quarter, prices increased 1.1 percent from the previous three months and 4 percent from a year earlier, according to the FHFA report.

The FHFA data, which is based on single-family houses with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, doesn’t provide a specific price.

The median price of an existing single-family home, as measured by the National Association of Realtors, was $184,300 in September, up 11 percent from a year earlier.