Home prices rose in September

Home prices rose August to September in 19 of 20 major U.S. markets, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller report said Tuesday. It was the second consecutive report in which prices rose in all but one of the monthly study's monitored cities. For September, prices rose in every market in the report, except Chicago. In the prior report, only Seattle bucked the trend. It was also the sixth consecutive month of price gains. Increases were slight in Washington, Tampa, Fla., Boston, Detroit and Charlotte, N.C., in the month, but overall prices rose 3 percent, just above the consensus prediction of 2.9 percent and significantly better than the 0.8 percent rise in the previous report.