GOOD NEWS!

Metro home prices rise- 0.8 PERCENT GAIN. Home prices in metro Denver rose in April from March, bucking a national trend of declining home values, according to a report Tuesday from the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. April's 0.8 percent monthly gain in metro Denver compares favorably with a 1.4 percent decline the index reported across 20 large metro areas that included Denver. And it represents the first month- over-month gain in Denver captured in the index since August, about the same time the subprime-mortgage mess tanked credit markets. "I believe both the prime selling season and fewer new homes has helped the resale home market," said independent real-estate analyst Gary Bauer. But Bauer said mortgage financing has remained tight, which has slowed closings. Boulder mortgage banker Lou Barnes said that tightness combined with a weakening economy made it premature to call a bottom. "Locally, we are closer to bottom than nationally, if only because our price peak passed in 2001," Barnes said. "Foreclosures here may soon stop rising, but the plague will be with us for another couple of years." Housing experts have long argued that weaker rates of home-price appreciation in Denver compared with overheated markets such as Las Vegas and Miami this decade would eventually translate into a quicker recovery here. Las Vegas and Miami home prices are down more than 26.5 percent in the past year, according to S&P/ Case-Shiller. Despite those stomach- curdling declines, home values are double 2000 levels in Miami and 65 percent higher in Las Vegas. Denver's increase this decade is a more modest 28.5 percent. And Denver's annual home-price decline of 4.7 percent, while not pleasant, is much less disruptive than the 15.3 percent decline captured in the 20-city index. Another home-price index Tuesday from the Office of Federal Housing and Enterprise Oversight showed a 0.8 percent decline nationally in April from March and a 4.6 percent decline over the past year. That more conservative OFHEO index looks at homes financed with government-backed mortgages and includes refinancings. In Colorado, the index showed a price increase of 2.29 percent for the first quarter. In Denver, the price increase was 0.9 percent. Barnes said he prefers the OFHEO index because it isn't as heavily influenced by foreclosures. Poor maintenance on foreclosed homes typically results in a 10 to 20 percent discount from resales under more normal conditions. Out of an estimated 5 million resales this year, about 1.4 million will represent foreclosures, more than double last year's level, Barnes said.