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Australian Property Monitors are reporting that national house prices grew 2.1 percent in 2012, accelerating towards the end of the year, and growing a very impressive 1.9 percent in the December quarter. To put that in perspective, that's a annualised growth rate of a little less than 8 percent a year. That's a decent clip, and as I said, we're just getting started.

Now just to drive this home, if you put in a 10 % deposit an you get an 8% return - that's a huge 75% cash-on-cash return...try getting that in another form of investing in 2013...

And what's more, the national figures hide some very strong performances by Perth, which grew 6.1 percent in the 2012, and Sydney, which was up 3.4 percent. Both cities have a full head of steam behind them. Only Melbourne seems confused about which direction it should be running.

Looking at some of the other datasets, which use different methodologies, the Residex measure was up 0.53 percent in the month of December, which is an annualised growth rate of 6.5 percent a year.

Residex Chief Economist Jon Edwards (nerdy looking guy, but super sharp) said it's the best performance in 18 months.

To top it off, the RP Data-Rismark measure was up 1.1 percent in January. That's an annualised clip of 14 percent a year. Any investor would be happy with that.

Hey, what I have quoted above are "averages." If you add a little real estate education, you could get 300% better return that the averages.

There is also a solid recovery underway in new home sales. It seemed that investors and existing homes were supporting the market through most of 2012. However, the Housing Industry Association Land Sales Report showed that residential land values increased 3.8 percent in the year to the September quarter. Not bad at all. And I think we'll see an even better result once the December quarter data come in.

The HIA measure of new home sales also bounced in December. They were up 6.2 percent in the month, and 3.3 percent in the quarter. This shows that the housing market is building a solid and broad base from which to launch its current run.