Home prices continue to rise in most major cities

Home prices were up in most major cities as the housing market shows signs of a stronger recovery. 

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released on Tuesday shows that prices were up 3 percent in 20 cities and 2.1 percent in its 10-city component compared with the same month last year. 

Prices were up 3.6 percent in the July-September quarter compared with the same period last year, and increased 2.2 percent from the second quarter this year. 

"Home prices rose in the third quarter, marking the sixth consecutive month of increasing prices," says David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. 

Prices increased in 18 of 20 cities, with Phoenix, a city hard hit during the housing crash, leading all cities with a 20.4 percent increase. In Atlanta, prices finally moved into positive territory, up 0.1 percent, halting 26 months of declines. 

Prices in 17 of the 20 cities posted better annual returns, with Detroit and Washington posting a slight deceleration in their annual rates. New York saw no change.

Meanwhile, 13 cities showed month-over-month price increases in September while Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland and New York experienced slight drops in home prices and Tampa, Fla., and Washington were flat. 

Chicago and New York were the only cities to post annual declines — 1.5 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively — and were also down 0.6 percent and 0.1 percent month over month.

"With six months of consistently rising home prices, it is safe to say that we are now in the midst of a recovery in the housing market," Blitzer said.

Although this time of year is typically weak, "housing continues to improve," he said.