Home prices up slightly, is the real estate free fall finally over?

According to S&P/Case-Shiller now coming in regarding July’s home price index, revealing a fifth consecutive month of steady increases in home prices across the board. Between June and July, prices slightly rose by 0.6%, but the good news is a 3.2% rise from July 2009, showing a gradual rise as opposed to the jacked up bubble-inducing skyrocketing prices of the past.

The rise of 3.2% matches most forecasts for the summer but the slow rise shows the housing sector has remained weak with low sales and slowing housing starts.

San Francisco has seen the highest price increase over the last year having risen 11.2% while Las Vegas performed the worst and hit a new low in July having fallen 4.9% over the year.

“It’s bouncing along the bottom, it stopped that free- fall,” S&P co-creator Karl Case told Bloomberg.com. “The combination of the tremendous drop in prices, the fall in interest rates, the government going all in and buying mortgage-backed securities to keep mortgage rates low, and the credit, of course — it’s not surprising that it’s come to an end.”