From March to April, 19 out of 20 markets tracked by the index posted price gains, ranging from an almost imperceptible 0.1 percent in New York to a 3.4 percent monthly gain in San Francisco. Detroit saw prices fall 3.6 percent from March, making the only market tracked by the index not to see a monthly gain.
Looking back a year, prices were down from a year ago in half of the markets in the 20-City Composite, led by Atlanta (-17 percent), Las Vegas (-5.8 percent) and Chicago (-3.6 percent). In the Phoenix metro area -- a market hit hard early in the downturn that's now seeing tight inventory -- prices were up 8.6 percent.
The 20-City Composite Index was up 1.3 percent from March to April, but down 1.9 percent from a year ago.
Those figures aren't seasonally adjusted, and changes in home prices "are very seasonal, with the spring and early summer being the most active buying months," said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices in a statement. But the seasonally adjusted data "were also largely positive, a possible sign that the increase in prices may be due to more than just the expected surge in spring sales."
Looking at the seasonally adjusted numbers, Bill McBride of the blog Calculated Risk thinks "it is likely that prices have bottomed, although I expect prices to be choppy going forward -- and I expect any nominal price increase over the next year or two to be small."
