The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices posted weaker third quarter data from 2010, suggesting summer's price gains may be behind us.

U.S. cities are reporting little change in prices in the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the monthly report by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) that is the leading measure of U.S. home prices.

The newest report, which surveys home prices for the third quarter, found prices from the second quarter were up nationally by 0.1 percent, a smaller increase from the monthly totals posted during the summer.Prices were down in Chicago from August to September by 0.8 percent, a month after a 1.4 percent increase that was tied with Detroit as the second highest monthly gain in August. The only cities to post monthly gains for September were New York, Portland and Washington D.C.

David M. Blitzer the chairman of the S&P Indices Index Committee, said the latest crop of data was a bit underwhelming.

“Home prices drifted lower in September and the third quarter,” Blitzer said. “The National Index was down 3.9 percent versus the third quarter of 2010 and up only 0.1 percent from the previous quarter.”

Additionally, Blitzer said a recovery in housing will largely depend upon the greater economy.

“Over the last year home prices in most cities drifted lower,” Blitzer said. The plunging collapse of prices seen in 2007-2009 seems to be behind us. Any chance for a sustained recovery will probably need a stronger economy.”

For the 10- and 20-City Composites, yearly prices from August 2010 are down 3.3 and 3.6 percent, respectively, which are marginal improvements from last month’s index, placing home values at their lowest level since 2003. Chicago’s 5.0 percent decrease was also a small improvement from last month’s 5.8 percent yearly decline.

Bill McBride of Calculated Risk, as usual, has formatted numerous graphs charting the Case-Shiller’s data, and the post containing those graphs can be read here.