While places like New York and Miami continue to see sale prices on new homes sliding downward, San Francisco was one of the top three cities in the country to see a rise in home prices in July. Our fair city saw a 5.9% increase in prices of newly constructed homes, while Cleveland and Dallas each saw 9.8% and 6.5% increases respectively. Across the country there was a 9.6% jump in the number of homes sold over the previous month, with 433,000 units sold overall. Robert Shiller of the Case-Shiller Index, speaking to CNN Money, suggests that this might just be a blip, and that prices are likely not to rise too quickly as long as unemployment remains as high as it is. But good luck getting a loan! more ›

For all you real estate data wonks and renters who like to feel smug: the median price of homes sold in the nine-county Bay Area is down 41% over last year, to $304,000. This also marks a pretty steep fall from the peak median price of July 2007 which was $665,000. more ›