Buried at the tail end of new report on Bloomberg.com was the news we've all been waiting for – home sales price increases. The headline was pointing out how home prices had dropped in 70% of states across the country (34 states); which meant that there were, indeed, states where home prices increased.

Leading the list was West Virginia with an average sales price increase of 4.2 percent in 2008 over 2007. Other states where prices moved upward include:

• Texas - 3.6 percent

• South Dakota – 3.6 percent

• Montana – 2.6 percent

• Mississippi – 1.7 percent

• Utah - 1.5 percent

• New Mexico - 1.3 percent

The price increases were reported by First American CoreLogic, which sells mortgage data and is based in Santa Ana, Calif.

Hopefully, these price increases are signs of things to come. Reuters news service ran a piece quoting Moody's Economy.com stating, "Despite the darkening national economic outlook and the weak conditions in the housing market, some positive signs give hope that a bottom in the housing market is coming into view," the report said, written by the group's chief economist.

"More than three years since the market began correcting, inventories are flattening, prices are coming back down to earth, and sales are approaching stability," the report said.

Published: March 27, 2009

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Mr. Carr is an award-winning real estate broker in Northern Virginia and authored "Real Estate Investing Made Simple: a commonsense approach to building wealth." He also contributed to Donald Trump’s book, "The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received," and is an active trainer and coach of top producers in the Washington DC market. As a sought-after expert on real estate, Mr. Carr has been featured on CNN, various broadcast outlets and was the former real estate editor for The Washington Times. He accepts questions at his blog www.RealEstateOlogy.org.