There’s good news for Valley homeowners. But perhaps not if you are in the market to buy a home.

The latest S&P Case Shiller Price Index of the top 20 U.S. cities shows home prices up more than 5 percent in October. The figures are reflected here in the Phoenix area with a year-to-year increase of 5.2 percent.

David Blitzer is managing director and chairman of the index committee. He said the Valley market continues to rebound from the recession.

“It’s a welcome shift compared to Phoenix of 10 or 12 years ago when it was one of the three or four cities that showed the sharpest declines," Blitzer said. "But it seems to be solidly recovering and pretty much keeping pace with the national index, certainly not lagging behind.”

The Phoenix real estate market is still 28 percent below its peak in 2006 and is more vulnerable to price fluctuations because of the amount of second and vacation homes.

For prospective buyers, Blitzer said he eventually expects price increases to level off closer to the rate of inflation in the next year. That is currently 1.7 percent nationally.