Home prices up for third straight month

By msnbc.com staff and news wires

The hits keep coming for the U.S. housing market.

While the rest of the economy struggles with sluggish consumer spending and a stalled job market,?data recently has been showing housing on the upswing.?Prices for single-family homes rose for the third consecutive month, a widely-watched survey showed Tuesday.

The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, topping economists' expectations of 0.4 percent. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, prices fared even better, rising 1.3 percent.

Just three out of the 20 cities in the index saw declines in April on a seasonally adjusted basis.

"It has been a long time since we enjoyed such broadbased gains," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's, said in a statement.

"While one month does not make a trend, particularly during seasonally strong buying months, the combination of rising positive monthly index levels and improving annual returns is a good sign."

Compared to a year ago, prices were down 1.9 percent, beating expectations for a decline of 2.5 percent, and an improvement from the 2.6 percent annual decline seen in March.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The latest S&P Case-Shiller results show on average home prices increased 1.3% in April, with David Blitzer, S&P 500 Index committee chairman.

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