Housing Market, U.s. Home Prices | featured news

The economy seems to have picked up in the second half of the year. But apparently no one told the housing market. Home prices continued to fall in October, even as sales of existing homes picked up and homebuilders applied for more permits. After stabilizing this summer, prices fell at a 7.5 percent annual rate in the three months ending in October, according to the latest data from CoreLogic, a real estate research firm.

The closely watched Case-Shiller index of home prices in American cities rose slightly in August from the prior month. Prices of previously owned single-family homes rose 0.2% in August over July and, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 metropolitan areas. The index dropped 3.8% from the same month a year prior.

Home prices fell in the third quarter from year-ago levels in about 80 percent of U.S. metropolitan areas, the National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday.

The August data from a home price index suggested that a housing recovery is taking hold.

U.S. home prices in July rose for the third straight month, surpassing forecasts and suggesting that the housing market is stabilizing after a three-year plunge.