Home prices across the country moved up in February at the fastest rate since mid-2006, up 10.2 percent from the year before, according to a new report. In Fort Worth-Arlington, average home prices were up 4.7 percent in February from February 2012, and up .6 percent from January, according to the report from CoreLogic, a property information services company. Not counting distressed sales, the average sales price locally was up 8.8 percent in February. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown saw average prices increase 7.5 percent and Dallas-Plano-Irving saw a 7.3 average sales price increase. The average prices were up the most in areas that suffered the greatest decline in value during the credit crisis: Phoenix was up 20.8 percent, Los Angeles was up 14.5 percent and Atlanta saw average prices rise 12.4 percent from a year ago. Sparsely populated Nevada saw the biggest statewide increase, up 19.3 percent. Arizona, California and Hawaii all saw significant gains. Illinois, Alabama and Delaware were the only states that saw average prices decline.  Construction jobs lead Texas job growth Texas construction companies led job growth in the state during the 12 months that ended in February, according to an analysis of job creation figures by the Texas A&M University Real Estate Center. Texas added 355,600 jobs during the year for an annual growth rate of 3.3 percent, compared with 1.5 percent for the country overall.   Small business lending up through recovery fund Texas lending institutions have increased small business lending by $1.07 billion through the Small Business Lending Fund over the 18 months that ended Dec. 31, 2012 according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The money comes from a $4 billion fund set up by the Obama Administration in 2010 to push lending out to small businesses. The fund provides capital to community banks, which then use other funding resources to leverage the lending to more businesses. In total, lenders have increased lending by about $8.9 billion to about 38,000 entities across the country since the fund’s inception. The average rate paid by banks to use the funds is 1.8 percent, according to Treasury figures.   Hillwood sells four sites totaling 16.3 acres for retail Hillwood Communities, a Perot company, has sold several sites in North Fort Worth for future retail use, according to the company and its real estate broker, Venture Commercial. They include: • 9.7 acres on the northeast quadrant of U.S. 377 and North Tarrant Parkway. The Victory Group was the buyer. • 4.4 acres on the northeast corner of Golden Triangle Boulevard and Beach Street to the Parmer Family Trust. • Two 1.1-acre sites on the northeast and southwest corners of Heritage Trace Parkway and Beach Street, near Hillwood’s village, The Bluffs at Heritage. ENT Building LLC bought the site on the northeast corner and Hahei Ltd. bought the site on the southwest corner. Representing Hillwood and some of the buyers were Venture Commercial’s Ken Reimer, David Davidson Jr. and Ed Bogel. The trio was aided by Jonathan Cooper on the 9.7-acre site.  Leases and stuff … Justin Brands Inc. has renewed the lease on 32,135 square feet of warehouse space in Northbrook Business Center Building 1, 1001 N.E. Loop 820 in Fort Worth. Nick Talley and Karen Simon of Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services represented Justin. Jerry Alexander of Transwestern Dallas represented the landlord, Fort Worth Northbrook Ltd.  … Anglers Pro Tackle LLC has leased 6,100 square feet of retail space in the Rufe Snow Village Shopping Center, 6238 Rufe Snow Drive, in North Richland Hills. Jon McDaniel of NAI Robert Lynn represented the tenant.  Send real estate news to Robert Francis at rfrancis@bizpress.net