Home prices gain on solid ground

U.S. home prices rose in the second quarter on three closely watched indexes, the monthly Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller report said Tuesday. Home prices rose in the Case-Shiller 10-city and 20-city indexes and in the U.S. National Index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, the report said. The U.S. National Home Price Index showed a gain of 1.2 percent in the second quarter over the same period a year earlier. The 10-City Composite Index posted an annual gain of 0.1 percent, while the 20-City Composite Index showed a gain of 0.5 percent, Case-Shiller said. The 10-city and 20-city figures were also up comparing June to May, rising 2.2 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the national composite gained 6.9 percent in the second quarter compared to the first. All 20 cities saw home prices rise in June and all of those, save two, saw gains accelerate compared to their gains in May. "Only Charlotte and Dallas saw a deceleration in their annual rates," the report said. "In this month's report all three composites and all 20 cities improved both in June and through the entire second quarter of 2012. All 20 cities and both monthly composites rose for the second consecutive month. It would have been a third consecutive month had we not seen home prices fall in Detroit back in April.," said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. Despite the blitz of positive numbers, the index is down on an annual basis in six cities -- Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Calif., and Las Vegas and flat in Boston. Blitzer said the gains, however, put a housing market recovery on solid footing. "We seem to be witnessing exactly what we needed for a sustained recovery: Monthly increases coupled with improved annual rates of change." "The market may have finally turned around," he said in a statement.