Housing prices — is light at end of tunnel now here?

That's what S&P/Case-Shiller is intimating. The major housing market monitor says that, nationwide, prices have risen four consecutive months.

Housing industry monitors say that, with another couple of months of good news, we could soon see a year-over-year increase in housing prices.

Now, will that provide a dose of economic optimism for the larger economy? A resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. certainly hopes so, for one.

I would say that, if we have one more month of housing price rises, and even prices alternating with rises for the rest of the way out, no spikes in gas prices, and a reasonable papering over of Eurozone issues, that adds up to 1 full percentage point in voting for Obama.

In a Virginia, a Pennsylvania or Ohio, maybe even a North Carolina, that could be a difference maker.