House prices have reversed their steep decline and it appears home prices are finally stabilizing at mid-2003 levels, according to the May Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city house price index.
The May HPI shows that prices have fallen 17.1% from a year ago, which is slower than the 18.1% annual decline in April.
"The pace of descent in home price value appears to be slowing," said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee.
While the index has reached a "clear inflection point," he said, prices are still down 17% on a year over year basis and "so we likely do have a way to go before we see sustained home price appreciation."