Home-price indexes hint at turnaround

Home prices rose 1.4 percent on average from May to June in 20 markets tracked by a Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index -- the second consecutive month-over-month increase in the 20-city composite.

Another home-price index maintained by the government to track purchases involving mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also showed home prices picking up in May and June.

Prices were on the rebound in June in all but two of the markets tracked by the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite -- Detroit and Las Vegas -- S&P said. Although the 20-city composite index was also up 0.5 percent from April to May, prices remained significantly lower than a year ago.

Looking back a year, the 20-city composite index was down 15.4 percent at the end of June. All 20 markets tracked saw annual price declines, and 15 experienced double-digit price drops.

The separate S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which covers all nine U.S. Census divisions, showed average prices at the end of the second quarter down 30.2 percent from their 2006 peak, to levels last seen in early 2003.

But looking back a year, the 14.9 percent annual decline in the National Home Price Index was less severe than the 19.1 percent annual decline posted during the first quarter.

The National Home Price Index also registered a 2.9 percent gain from the first quarter to the second, which was the first quarter-to-quarter gain in three years. Home sales often pick up in the spring, and the seasonally adjusted increase in the National Home Price Index from the first quarter to the second was a more modest 1.4 percent. ...CONTINUED

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