S Korea home prices rise for fifth straight month

[SEOUL] South Korean house prices rose for a fifth straight month in January, as consumers' growing confidence in Asia's fourth-largest economy nourished a recovery from the longest sequence of price declines on record. The property market is still below levels seen six years ago when the market slumped after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, according to real estate agents.

But data released yesterday by Kookmin Bank, the country's top mortgage lender, showed house prices rose 0.…