Housing prices continue to slide, but the good news, if you can call it that, is that they aren't falling quite as fast as they were.

Tampa Bay home prices fell 2.1 percent in April and are down 20.4 percent since April 2007, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released today. But that's an improvement. They fell 3.36 percent in March.

Nationally, the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metro areas was down 1.4 percent in April and is off 15.3 percent for the year. Economists had expected the numbers would be worse; they were looking for a 2 percent decline for the month. Miami and Phoenix had the biggest declines.

The index shows Tampa Bay area prices peaked in July 2006.