The S&P/Case- Shiller Home Price Indices for January 2010

were released today

. Highlights include:



1. Both the 10-City Composite and the 20-City Composite Home Price Indexes have increased for eight consecutive months for the first time since the spring of 2006, almost four years ago, and both indexes in January reached their highest levels in 12 months, since January 2009 (see top chart above).



2. Based on the percentage increase from the same month in the previous year, the annual rates of returns for both home price indexes improved in January for the 12 th consecutive month, and while still slightly negative (-0.04% for the 10-City Index and -0.69% for the 20-City Index) the annual returns are close to be being in positive territory for the first time in three years (February 2007).



3. In three of the cities with the biggest annual January-to-January price declines in the Case- Shiller index like Las Vegas (-17.4%), Miami (-6.77%) and Phoenix (-4.5%), I have reported recently (

here

,

here

(for all of Florida) and

here