US home prices rise for sixth straight month
Signs are posted in front of new homes at the KB Home Quarry Heights housing development on March 23, 2012 in Petaluma, Calif.
US home prices rose for the sixth straight month in July in one of the strongest signs yet that the housing market is on the rebound.
The Case-Shiller Index, a gauge of property values in 20 major US cities, showed a 1.2 percent jump in home prices from July 2011, the biggest 12-month increase since August 2010, Bloomberg reported.
More from GlobalPost: House prices in the US rise in nearly every major city
Separately, prices measured by the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency home price index rose 0.2 percent in July compared with a 0.6 percent rise in June, according to Reuters.
Neither are close to levels from the peak of the housing boom in 2006, but point to continued signs of a recovering market.
More from GlobalPost: Existing home sales hit highest level in 2 years in August
"All in all, we are more optimistic about housing," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, told the Wall Street Journal.
Also on Tuesday, reports show that consumer confidence climbed in September to the highest level in seven months in a sign that consumers may be ready to loosen their purse strings, according to CNN.
This is particularly important as retailers begin to gear up for the holiday shopping season.