House prices up slightly in January but tough times still ahead

Housing prices increased slightly in January but the price rebound of last fall is running out of steam, according to a Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index released Tuesday. 

The report showed a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent rise from December 2009 to January, the eighth straight month of increases. As of January, average housing prices nationwide are at similar levels to those of fall 2003, before the peak in summer 2006 and the low in April of last year. 

But other data -- low levels of housing starts, foreclosure concerns, a large inventory of unsold houses and sluggish homes sales factored into a "mixed" report, according to David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's.

"We can't say we're out of the woods yet."

While year-over-year data continues to improve for all 20 cities in the index, Blitzer said, "the rebound in housing prices seen last fall is fading." He said fewer cities experienced gains from December to January on a seasonally adjusted and an unadjusted basis. Four cities -- Charlotte, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa -- saw prices hit new lows. 

The index provides a view of the first decade of the 2000s. The three best cities were New York, Washington and Los Angeles, all averaging prices 70 percent higher than the January 2000 level. Detroit was the worst city, recording prices at 28 percent below those of 10 years ago.