Oct. 27--Housing prices were up for the seventh straight month in September, causing economists Monday to declare the dismal housing market had cleared the abyss.

And it had Realtors hoping Congress extends an $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit this week.

While the median price of a home was still 7.3 percent below where it was last year at this time, demand caused by 2.1 percent year-to-year sales increase pushed statewide prices up for the seventh month in a row.

"We've come back a long way," said Steve Goddard, president-elect of the California Association of Realtors, which published the report. "Even though we're down (compared with last year) we're not down as much. That's showing a good direction."

Locally, the numbers mostly followed the state trend.

In Los Angeles County, home prices stood at $333,000 -- down 8.8 percent from $365,000 in September 2008.

But that decline in value is becoming less steep. In fact, over the past few months in several San Gabriel Valley cities, prices are up compared with last year.

In Monrovia, for instance, the median price of a single family home stood at $458,000 -- a 3.5 percent increase from last year's $442,450 median.

A home in Pasadena jumped from $510,000 in September 2008 to $514,250 last month.

Even with the jumps, affordability levels remain high, and that's driving the market, said John Husing, an economist who specializes in the Inland Empire.

"I believe the bottom of the housing downturn is now behind us," Husing said. "We bottomed in the second quarter."

Still, there doesn't look to be a smooth recovery.

The market is "bouncing along the bottom," Husing said.

In Baldwin Park, the past three months have been spotty.

In September -- and in contrast to many other local cities -- the city actually saw its home values dip even further, down 18.8 percent to $235,000.

It was unclear why the median prices in Baldwin Park have been so up and down.

While it's easy to blame unemployment, experts cautioned against putting too much stock in lack of jobs.

Development patterns and available housing stock also play a role, they said.

What was clear to CAR officials was that in order to continue fueling demand for homes, Congress needed to extend the first-time homebuyer credit. That came as early as this week, Goddard said.

"There's an awful lot of people who really need that $8,000," Goddard said. "For some, that going to be half of their down payment."

ryan.carter@sgvn.com

(626) 962-8811 ext. 2720

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