When things have been very bad, as they have for housing demand and sales since the onset of the recession, it is reasonable to say that "less bad" is a good thing.

Radar Logic came to that conclusion about housing data it released this week.

Home prices year-to-year are still sinking, but "short-term trends suggest that conditions may be starting to improve," Radar Logic said in its monthly housing-market report.

Among the items Radar Logic cited was the lowest August-to-September price decline was the lowest since 2006.

The S&P/Case-Schiller Index was up a tenth of a percent from the second quarter to the third quarter of this year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's house price index also was a shade higher in this year's third quarter than in the second.

"Based on these trends, we expect the year-over-year trend to remain negative (i.e., seasonally adjusted prices will continue to fall), but the rate of decline will slow until prices finally touch bottom," Radar Logic wrote.