Home prices notched their strongest year-to-date gains since 2005, climbing 5.9 percent through July and signaling the housing market's steady trudge toward recovery, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The rising prices in Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index released yesterday could play a pivotal role in changing consumer sentiment toward housing and drawing in buyers from the sidelines. Home prices typically are strongest in the summer, the busiest season for home sales, before declining later in the year, according to experts. But the 5.9 percent rise far surpasses the 0.4 percent gain seen through the same period last year and the 2 percent gain in 2010.
