U.S. housing prices show steady growth

In an ironic turn of events, the U.S. economy is being given a significant boost by that which many say dragged it down into recession in the first place, the housing market. Home prices across 20 cities rose by 3% from September 2011 to September 2012, the most since July 2010. Home prices from July through September climbed the most since the second fiscal quarter of 2010.

So the housing market is now providing a much needed boost to the economy as other aspects of the market continue to be sluggish.

“I think it’s a stabilization on the sales side that’s probably helping with the prices here,” said Sean Incremona, senior economist at 4Cast Inc. “We’ve had several years now for the housing recovery to sort of catch its feet, and it looks like we are starting to crawl out of the giant hole that we dug into from the financial crisis.”