Housing Market, Home Prices | featured news

The struggling U.S. housing market is expected to fall a little further as it searches for a bottom, but home prices are seen ticking up modestly in 2012, according to a Reuters poll released on Friday.

New single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in June, but a sharp rise in prices and declining supply suggested the market for new houses was starting to stabilize, a government report showed on Tuesday.

Home prices in major U.S. cities have risen for the first time in eight months, boosted by an annual flurry of spring buyers.

A backlog of foreclosures and falling sales indicate prices may decline further, discouraging builders from taking on new projects.

Home prices have reached their lowest points since the housing bubble burst in 2006, driven down by foreclosures, a glut of unsold homes and the reluctance or inability of many to buy.

Phoenix is one of the many Sun Belt cities where housing markets have taken a big hit during the recent bust, with residential prices down nearly 45 percent since 2006.

Consumers felt better about the short-term outlook for the economy in April as expectations about the pace of inflation and concerns about the labor market eased.

Home prices are falling in most major U.S. cities, and the average prices in four of them are at their lowest point in 11 years.

Home prices in a majority of major U.S. cities tracked by a private trade group have fallen to their lowest levels since the housing bubble burst.

With home prices down and mortgage rates near record lows, a lot of people feel that now is the perfect time to jump into the housing market.