Atlanta continues to lag when it comes to home prices. 

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows monthly improvement in most of the cities it tracks, including Atlanta.  But Maureen Maitland, Vice-President of S&P Indices, points out Atlanta is the only city still posting a double-digit negative annual rate of return.  

"While it went up over the month by 2.3 percent, it's still down 17 percent versus this time last year, so Atlanta is the one market really suffering right now," Maitland says.

She contrasts Atlanta to Phoenix, which has experienced a blossoming recovery of home prices.  

"Phoenix fared the best in terms of annual returns at (plus) 8.6 percent in April." 

As of April, 2012, average home prices in the U.S. are about where they were in early to mid-2003.  Here in Atlanta, Maitland explains, home prices average below January, 2000 levels.

If there's a silver lining, Maitland believes, it's that the housing market may have bottomed out.  

"We may now be at the bottom, where it's simply going to turn around because it just can't fall anymore," she says.