WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. – Westchester County violated the terms of the Housing Settlement when County Executive Rob Astorino vetoed a bill banning discrimination against renters for using public assistance, such as Section 8 vouchers, to pay rent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided Friday.

The decision upholds a judgment from the U.S. District Court.

Astorino vetoed a source-of-income bill passed by the County Board of Legislators in June 2010. A previous bill had been reintroduced from the 2009 legislative session. The 2010 bill removed court-ordered payments, inheritance, annuities, pensions and child and spousal support from the definition of income source. The bill also set a $50,000 penalty for discrimination and exempted co-op apartments and condominiums.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development contested that the county violated the terms of the settlement by not promoting the source-of-income legislation or including plans to overcome exclusionary zoning practices.

WHITE PLAINS, New York — A suburban county executive violated a fair-housing agreement by vetoing a measure he was obligated to support, a federal appeals court said Friday.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district judge’s finding. It was another blow to Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s battle against how federal entities are interpreting the 2009 agreement.

Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said Westchester would lose $7.4 million in grants unless the county ends its resistance to government orders.

Astorino issued a statement saying he was disappointed with Friday’s ruling.

“I will comply with the law and continue to take principled stands,” he said.

But HUD Deputy Secretary Maurice Jones praised the court’s decision.

“The court of appeals has very clearly stated that Westchester County must follow through on its commitments to fair housing opportunities,” said Jones.

In 2009, facing a likely loss in an anti-discrimination lawsuit, the county just north of New York City negotiated an agreement with the federal government designed to make Westchester’s government a force for fair housing.

The county agreed to build or acquire 750 units of affordable housing — mostly in white areas — and market them to non-whites in the region.

That program is ahead of schedule, the county says.

But the agreement also called for the county executive to “promote” legislation that would prohibit landlords from rejecting tenants who use government subsidies to help pay their rent.

When such a bill came before him in 2010, Astorino vetoed it. He said the previous county executive had fulfilled the obligation to promote it and the agreement didn’t bind him to the same requirement.

In Friday’s ruling, the court said Astorino was wrong on both counts and “the veto was wholly inconsistent” with his duty to promote it.

“We find that the county breached its duty,” the court said.

Housing prices in the nation surged 10.2 percent in February, but a large inventory of low priced foreclosures kept increases at more modest levels in Connecticut and Fairfield County.

CoreLogic, the California-based realty data firm, released a report Wednesday on national and local trends in housing prices.

“Home prices continued their march upward in February. Nationally, home prices improved at the best rate since mid-2006, marking a full year of annual increases and underscoring the ongoing strengthening of market fundamentals,” Anand Nallathambi, president and chief executive of CoreLogic, said in the report. “Continued home price appreciation will provide fuel needed to drive further recovery in the home purchase market.”

Nationally, home prices were higher when distressed properties were included in the figures, but in Connecticut, prices were dramatically lower when the foreclosures and short sales were included

Good news for home buyers: According to the latest report from real estate data provider CoreLogic, home prices rose 10.2 percent in February on a year-on-year basis, the biggest annual increase since March 2006.

Nationwide, home prices have been rising rapidly, especially in Nevada (19.3 percent), Arizona (18.6 percent), California (15.3 percent), Hawaii (14.6 percent) and Idaho (13.5 percent). But they are still down more than 26 percent from April 2006, when they were at their peak, CoreLogic reported.

Phoenix; Los Angeles; Riverside, Calif.; Atlanta and New York are among cities with the biggest gains.

CoreLogic’s measure of national prices also rose 0.5 percent in February from January– a solid increase during the winter months, when sales typically slow.

Soaring home prices continue to pull the real estate market into a steady recovery as the spring buying season approaches.

In February, U.S. home prices jumped 10.2 percent from the same period in the previous year, according to CoreLogic, a real estate data firm. That marks the largest annual gain in home values since March 2006, which was before the housing bubble burst.

Home prices have increased in the last 12 consecutive months when comparing year-to-year data, including a 9.7 percent gain in January and an 8.3 percent boost in December. On a monthly basis, home prices rose 0.5 percent from January to February this year — especially good news when considering the colder winter months tend to be slow.

“That’s impressive for being February,” said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist. “This is the off-season for housing, so prices rising this dramatically is a very good sign. Just like baseball’s Opening Day, April is opening month for the house-buying season.”

But, for now, the housing market is only showing signs of improvement.

In another heathy sign, the gains are happening in almost every state — Alabama, Delaware and Illinois being the exceptions. In Illinois, the sluggishness is attributed to a continued glut of foreclosures that is nagging the market there.

Topping February’s growth is Nevada, which saw a 19 percent increase, followed closely by Arizona at 18 percent and California with 15 percent. Rounding out the top five were Hawaii and Idaho, with 14 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

As for cities, the housing markets were particularly strong in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York. Many of these markets, particularly those in Nevada, Arizona and California, were the hardest hit by the housing crisis. So as prices begin to rebound around the country, naturally, these areas are enjoying the biggest jumps.

“The rebound in prices is heavily driven by Western states,” Mr. Fleming said. “Eight of the top 10 highest appreciating large markets are in California, with Phoenix and Las Vegas rounding out the list.”

This growth comes as the Obama administration is pushing for looser lending standards from banks, so that consumers with weaker credit can also take advantage of the housing recovery and buy homes, according to news reports that surfaced this week. President Obama and his advisers want to make it easier for first-time buyers and those whose credit scores suffered due to the recession to purchase homes.

They reason that an uptick in home sales would drive the economy forward, but critics fear that this could once again lead to the practice of selling homes to people who can’t afford them.