U.S. home prices rose slightly in September, showing the fourth straight monthly increase, according to the Standard & Poor"s/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities released Tuesday. The index rose 0.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted reading of 144.96 in September. Prices rose month-over-month in 11 metro areas, which is a weaker showing than in recent months. Compared with a year earlier, prices were down 9.4 percent, the smallest year over year decline since January 2008. "We have seen broad improvement in home prices for most of the past six months," said David Blitzer, chairman of the Standard & Poor"s index committee. "However, the gains in the most recent month are more modest than during the seasonally strong summer months." Prices, as measured by the seasonally adjusted 20-city index, are up more than 3 percent from the bottom in May-but, they are still down 30 percent from their height in April 2006.
