Orange County home prices are up by the biggest margin in eight years, figures released Wednesday by DataQuick Information Systems show.

The La Jolla-based housing tracker reported that the median home price, or price at the midpoint of all sales, was $477,000 in February.

That’s up 22.3 percent from February of last year, which was the biggest annual price gain since November 2004.

Orange County’s housing prices also are at their highest level since May 2008.

February’s median price was $7,000 above the previous high reached in December. It’s also up $107,000 from the post-crash price bottom hit in January 2009.

Orange County’s housing market has recouped 39 percent of the losses…

Read the rest of the OC Register’s article here: “O.C. home prices show biggest gain since 2004″.