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Data release today by S&P for the Case-Shiller Home Price index shows improvement for the 3^rd quarter of 2009. This is the second straight quarterly increase and also showed improvement in its annual rate of return.

The chart below shows the 10-City Composite and the 20-City Composite Home Price Indices. The Case-Shiller U.S. Home Price Index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, recorded an 8.9% decline in the third quarter of 2009 versus the third quarter of 2008. This is a marked improvement over the 14.7% decline in the annual rate of return reported in the second quarter of 2009, and the 19.0% drop in the first quarter. The 10-City and 20-City Composites recorded annual declines of 8.5% and 9.4%, respectively. These two indices, which are reported at a monthly frequency, have generally seen improvements in their annual rates of return every month since the beginning of the year.

"We have seen broad improvement in home prices for most of the past six months," says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's. "However, the gains in the most recent month are more modest than during the seasonally strong summer months. Fewer cities saw month to month improvements in September than in August in both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted figures. 
 
Nationally, the U.S. National Composite rose by 3.1% in both the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2009. Both the 10-City and 20-City Composites posted their fifth consecutive monthly increase with September's report. Earlier some analysts voiced concern that the end of the first-time home buyer program would result in a drop in activity. While housing starts did slip in October, the federal government recently extended and expanded the first-time homebuyer tax credit."