NEW YORK CITY-Home prices are continuing to tumble downwarddespite some slight glimmers of hope in major metropolitan areas,according to January figures released by S&PCase-Shiller on Tuesday morning. Pricing for 20 US citiesdeclined by 0.8% from December 2011, sliding back to the levelswhere they were nearly a decade ago in early 2003.

David M. Blitzer, chairman of the indexcommittee at S&P Indices, says that eight cities – includingAtlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Las Vegas, New York, Portland, Seattleand Tampa – have hit new lows, and only Washington, DC, Phoenix andMiami have shown improvements. S&P’s 10-city composite was down3.9% and the 20-city was 3.8% compared to January 2011. With thenew lows, both are now 34.4% off their relative 2006 peaks.

Gary Painter, an economist with the USCLusk Center for Real Estate, says that falling prices arenot so much a reflection of market health, but rather the result ofbanks disposing of distressed assets by offering low prices to cashbuyers.