According to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, home prices rose in October, marking the fifth month in a row they’ve done so — it’s up 3.4% from May (when it hit bottom).

That’s the good news. The bad news is that prices are still lower (7.3% lower) than they were a year ago.

The other bad news is that the Washington, D.C., metro area (the only one in or near Virginia the index tracks) is down 0.4% from September, after being up from August. On the other hand, D.C. is only down 2.8 percent over last year.

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