According to the Federal Housing and Finance Agency, things looked a little brighter for sellers on the month of February. Based on their monthly home price index, prices on singe family homes rose by 0.7%. This score is garnered from purchase prices of homes financed or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Fannie, Freddie, and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks in the nation, are overseen by the FHFA.

From the data acquired, while the numbers were slightly more positive for February, overall there is still a huge gap between current prices and the significantly higher numbers seen in the past. For example, while this February`s prices were up over January, they were still 6.5% down from February of the previous year. The current index seen is also 9.5% lower then the high peak seen in April 2007.

However, it is hoped that this slight increase represents that a change is coming, that prices have or will soon stop falling (in the areas hit hardest by the market crisis) and will gradually rise back up to a healthy price. Of course, this will not happen overnight and as evidenced by the extreme differences in the prices above, it will take a sustainable amount of time to overcome. The hope lies in the fact that at least the numbers have stopped falling, reflecting that while far away, the market is going to get back on track.