The National Association of Realtors, the industry's largest trade group, said home prices probably will gain 4.3 percent this year, a third the pace of 2005, as higher mortgage rates increase the cost of buying.

The median price for an existing home will increase to $229,000 in 2006 from $219,600 last year, the group said in a forecast released in Washington. That would be below the 5 percent average annual growth of the last 50 years, according to data from Freddie Mac, the No. 2 U.S. mortgage buyer. In 2005, U.S. home prices gained 12.4 percent from a year earlier.