SAN DIEGO (AP) — California home prices rose more than 20 percent in December — with the San Francisco Bay area witnessing its sharpest increase in at least two decades — as buyers competed for scarce inventory, a research firm reported Wednesday.

The median sales price for houses and condominiums was $299,000, up 21.5 percent from $246,000 in the same period of 2011, DataQuick said. It was the 10th straight month that prices rose from the previous year.