Yesterday's release of the Case-Shiller Price Index was cause for some small celebration for some market watchers.  The index showed housing prices stabilizing across the board, and even rising in some key cities, including San Francisco--which has seen the third biggest drop in housing prices during the recession (behind Phoenix and Las Vegas).  The Times quotes Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic, as saying “We’ve found the bottom, and Wells Fargo chief economist John E. Silvia writing in a letter to investors, “Recession is over, economy is recovering — let’s look forward and stop the backward-looking focus.  Here's the year over year Case-Shiller trend (source: Standard and Poor's, via The Big Picture):

Before anyone gets carried away with the recent spate of apparently positive housing news, Barry Ritholtz reminds us all that new home sales are at their lowest level for the last 27 years, and it is taking a long time for seller and builders to find buyers.  Read Worst June New Home Sales Since 1982 here.