Critics and doomsayers can say all they want, but as the saying goes, “Numbers don’t lie.” Days after the real estate industry received encouraging news regarding pending homes sales and apartment rents, the housing market got another boost after new data indicated that, while house prices are still dropping in most markets, the decline in home values is slowing down.

Altos Research’s 10-city composite showed that the median house listing price dropped 0.5% in March. The figure is better than February’s 1.3% decline in another indication that the pace of decline of house prices is decelerating. March marked the eighth-straight month that home values dropped, bringing the Q110 price decline to 1.8%.

A breakdown of the data showed that listing prices continued to fall in 22 of 26 major metropolitan markets, with properties listing at an average of $477,596, 6.2% lower than the peak average listing price of $509,030 in July last year. Of the 22 major metropolitan markets, San Diego, Phoenix, and Denver posted the steepest monthly declines at -2.9%, -2.5%, and -2.2%, respectively, compared to the previous month.

Property prices rose 1.5% in Washington, D.C., 0.3% in Boston, and 0.1% in Cleveland while home values in Chicago remained flat. Only Washington, D.C. registered a quarterly increase of 0.4%. Altos said the quarterly increase “bodes well” for house price stability in the country’s capital, where inventory is down 17.3%.

Overall listed property inventory increased by 4.2% in March but fell 10% from the same month last year. Altos added that listed houses in most metropolitan areas take around 100 days or more before being sold.

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