Home prices locally are soaring at the fastest rate in 3 ½ years, as competition for few available homes has heated up during the peak buying season.

Seattle has led the nation in home-price growth every month since September.

But since then, the gap between Seattle and other cities has only grown, suggesting it will be a while before Seattle relinquishes its dubious title. Compared with just a month ago, Seattle prices jumped 2.6 percent, easily the most in the nation.

The continued price increases from the past half-decade continue to limit access to homeownership. The median price of a house in Seattle is now $729,000, and it's $875,000 on the Eastside, while prices are now at record highs in Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties.

Five years ago, the typical family looking for a starter home had to spend one-third of its income on a small house in Greater Seattle, according to Trulia. Now, the typical starter home here requires half of household income for those buyers.

The price of starter homes — generally the cheapest one-third of homes on the market — has nearly doubled in that span while incomes have not come close to keeping up. At the same time, the number of starter homes on the market has dropped in half since 2012.

Here's another way to think about it: The average millennial here would need to save up for 14.5 years just to afford a 20 percent down payment on the typical small starter house, according to new research from the rental website Abodo. That assumes millennials are able to sock away 15 percent of their income each year, which may prove difficult for some given the soaring rents here.