Home Prices Bottoming Out?

The bleeding in the housing market seems to be slowing, at least temporarily, according to home price data released recently.

Most U.S. cities saw gains in the median price of single-family homes sold during the three months ended Sept. 30, according to the National Association of Realtors’ quarterly report on home prices. This is the second consecutive quarter of gains.

NAR attributed much of the recent increase in home prices to the government’s first-time homebuyer tax credit, which has helped revive home sales from a deep slump.

The national median home price was $177,900 in the third quarter, up $7,000 from the previous quarter. And while that down more than 11% from the third quarter of 2008, the pace of decline is slowing. In the second quarter of 2009, home prices fell 15.4% from the same period last year.

Despite the positive report, many clouds dot the housing market horizon. The darkest of those is the current employment picture. The latest release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a national unemployment rate of 10.2%.

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