For the month of June 2009, in fact, the Standard&Poor’s Case-Shiller index found prices up in 14 of the 20 major markets it covers — and up nationally by one half of one percent.

That’s the first monthly gain in the heavily publicized Case-Shiller index in three years!

•New home building is beginning again even in the hardest-hit markets. In California, June bullding permits soared by 17 percent over May. In the high-cost San Francisco area they were up by 20 percent.

•In Florida, sales of existing homes jumped by 28 percent, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. Condo sales were up by an average 37 percent for the month. And despite the foreclosures still weighing down Florida transactions, average prices in June managed to rise by two and a half percent!!

Home sales are up, new housing starts up, new construction permits up, and now the last of the doomsayers say that home prices are in fact moving up.

Other indexes that get less attention on the evening news began trending more positive a few months earlier, such as the federal government’s “FHFA” index.

But the Case-Shiller news, late though it was, should send a loud message to consumers: We’re past the low point of the cycle on prices: If you were waiting to buy at the bottom, well – we’ve passed that point.

Case-Shiller found prices in Cleveland up 4 percent for the month, Dallas up by close to 2 percent, San Francisco, Washington DC and Chicago up by a percent or more.