But, experts warn, this won't last, and prices are expected to decline in the coming months.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed that home prices increased in July from June in 17 of the 20 cities tracked. In the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, prices increased a modest 0.8 percent from June to July. That followed a 2.2 percent increase from May to June.

The market, however, remains depressed, and prices in Tampa dropped 6.4 percent from a year ago.

This is still a seasonal period of stronger demand for houses, so monthly price increases are expected," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of Standard & Poor's index committee.

"While we have now seen four consecutive months of generally increasing prices, we do know that we are still far from a sustained recovery."

Over the past 12 months, prices have fallen in all but two cities: Detroit and Washington.

Still, it was the fourth straight month prices rose in most of the cities tracked.

Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis posted the biggest monthly percentage gains. Prices fell in two cities among those hit hardest by the housing crisis - Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The index, which covers half of all U.S. homes, measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The July data are the latest available.

Miami, the only other Florida city included in the index, saw prices rise 1.2 percent from June to July and drop 4.6 from last year.

The index does not include actual home prices, but the recent figures from Florida Realtors show the median sales price in August was $130,000, down 8 percent from $140,600 a year ago.