Home prices in the month of June rose modestly across 17 cities, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller’s 20-city analysis showed that home prices rose 1 percent from May to June, up 4.2 percent from a year ago.

With the expiration of government tax credits, home buying is expected to fall back down again, which will drive home prices down due to less demand.

In the second quarter overall, which spans the months of April to June, home prices increased 4.4 percent, after a decline of 2.8 percent in the previous quarter.

“While the numbers are upbeat, other more recent data on home sales and mortgages point to fewer gains ahead,” said David M. Blitzer, who chairs the Index Committee at Standard and Poor’s.

With the expiration of tax credits, weak consumer confidence, home foreclosures still high, and a 9.5 percent unemployment rate across the US, the housing market probably will decline in coming months.

But, despite the projected downturn in home sales, Blitzer noted that the housing market is in “better shape than this time last year.”

Since April 2009, when home prices reached their nadir, prices have rose 6 percent but are still 28 percent lower than peak experienced in July 2006.

Minneapolis, Detroit, and Chicago all had the highest increases in June, with home prices rising 2.5 percent. Washington DC and Atlanta prices increased 1.7 percent and both New York City and Cleveland prices rose 1.3 percent.

Seattle and Phoenix remained the same and Las Vegas posted the only loss with a 0.6 percent decline.

California saw a small increase in home prices with San Diego increasing 0.4 percent, San Francisco increasing 0.4 percent, and Los Angeles increasing 0.6 percent.

However, analysts say that home prices are probably going to fall in the third and fourth quarters. Even though mortgage rates have fallen to historically low levels, signs of activity have already started to wane. The sale of previously occupied homes in July fell 27 percent—the lowest levels since 1995 while the sale of new homes fell down 12.4 percent in the same month.

"We know the bottom fell out because of the tax credit, and it's hard not to think that won't be reflected in prices," Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, told the Los Angeles Times. "We are going to see some big falls pretty quickly."