U.S. home prices rose in ⁠October at the slowest annual rate in more than 13 years, government data showed Tuesday, in a sign of improving affordability ‍in the long-struggling housing market.

The Federal ‍Housing Finance Agency said home prices rose 1.7% from a year ⁠earlier in October after climbing by an upwardly revised 1.8% in September. That ​marked the smallest annual price increase since March 2012, when prices first started rising after a ‍five-year slump triggered by the global financial crisis.

On a ⁠regional basis, annual price changes ranged from a drop of 0.7% in the lower Midwest to an increase of 5.3% ⁠in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Home ​price increases are ⁠now a fraction of what they were during and ‍immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, when widespread work-from-home policies ‌sent the real estate market into a frenzy and sent prices spiraling higher at ⁠annual ​rates approaching 20%.

On a ‍monthly basis, U.S. home prices rose 0.4% in October following a ‍downwardly revised decline of 0.1% in September.