Home prices slide at beginning of the year

Home prices fell from December into January, and continue to linger well below where they stood one year ago, according to new data released Tuesday.

The value of the nation's houses was down 3.8 percent on an annual basis in the 20 cities tracked by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, and now sits nearly 35 percent below its 2006 peak.

"Despite some positive economic signs, home prices continued to drop," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices.

While the job market has shown strong gains in recent months, and the economy is growing consistently, the housing market has remained a consistent sore spot in the side of the economic recovery.

Seen as a key economic weakness, potential fixes to the housing market have fallen under the Capitol Hill spotlight. On the right, the GOP budget by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) lays out a broad plan for winding down government housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While on the left, Democrats are pushing a housing regulator to allow those same entities to write down the principal on mortgages to help struggling homeowners, which they argue would help boost the economic comeback.

Home prices were down nationwide 0.8 percent from December to January with only three cities — Miami, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. — posting gains. However, if the data is seasonally adjusted, home prices actually held steady over that time frame.

In 2011, Denver, Detroit and Phoenix were the only cities to actually report gains, while Atlanta had the roughest year, with its housing market dipping 14.8 percent — the only city to report double-digit losses.

Charlotte's data was not included in the survey because it was collected late.

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