April S&P/Case-Shiller Index: Down 18.1%

The April S&P/Case-Shiller figures were released this morning. They showed home prices in 20 top metropolitan areas down 18.1% from a year earlier. That was better than the forecast for a reading of -18.6% and an improvement from the previous month's -18.7% reading. Prices fell in all 20 cities tracked by the research organization, with Phoenix performing the worst (-35.3%) and Denver doing the best (-4.9%). The monthly decline came in at -0.6%, an improvement from -2.2% in March and the smallest drop since last June. Prices rose in 8 of 20 cities on a monthly basis.