The latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed some very modest improvement in home prices for May, but the data is old now and it likely to represent only a brief pause in the decline of home prices.
The 10-City Composite was up 5.4% from May 2009 and the 20-City Composite rose 4.6% The numbers follow the largest cities in the US. The improvement in prices in most metro areas and the two composite indices slowed from May’s rate over April.
David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P, said that the housing market had done not better than “stabilize” from its April 2009 bottom. “The last several months are really only a stabilization at a low level.
The market may still slip further and the current plateau could easily fall further. Rising housing inventory, unemployment, the 11 million home loans which are underwater, and high foreclosure rates mean that the home market could collapse as the year wears on.

Douglas A. McIntyre