Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco posted steady gains in October, underscoring the rebound in California sales this year. Another Sun Belt city, Phoenix, also showed improvement. But Las Vegas is paying the price for its affair with overbuilding during the boom years and has come to represent the epicenter of the bust and all its dire consequences. The city remains the one major metropolitan area in the country that has shown no signs of improvement this year, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index, released Tuesday. 'They are going to have problems for a while,' Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics at Moody's Economy.com, said. 'There is still just massive oversupply, you have got a weak economy because tourism is down, and a lot of the economy was tied to construction. ... I don't think the worst is over for Vegas.' While home prices ticked up modestly on a seasonally adjusted basis in October from September, the non-seasonally adjusted numbers showed zero improvement. The non-seasonally adjusted numbers reflect the fact that fewer homes are sold during the slower fall months. Eight cities posted declines on a month-over-month basis, and Dallas was flat. All 20 cities continued to show improvements on a year-over-year basis with annual price declines moderating. The index was down 7.3 percent in October compared with October 2008 and was off 29 percent from its July 2006 peak. California cities posted solid gains with Los Angeles up 0.7 percent, San Diego up 1.1 percent and San Francisco up 1.7 percent. It was the fifth consecutive gain for Los Angeles, the sixth for San Diego and the seventh for San Francisco. Faucher cautioned that while some of California's bigger metropolitan areas have improved, markets such as the Central Valley are likely to continue to see foreclosures and could erode in the new year. 'It is the outlying areas that remain a problem,' he said. Phoenix was up 1 percent, its fifth month of home price improvement. Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Washington, Seattle and Denver eked out modest gains while Boston and New York registered small drops. Tampa was the worst-performing market, down 1.2 percent. Las Vegas remained the one market that had shown no sign of improvement so far this year, according to the data. Prices there have declined for 38 consecutive months, down 55.4 percent from its peak. The modest price gains probably reflect a rush of buyers looking to take advantage of a tax credit for first-time purchases ahead of the government's initial Nov. 30 deadline. Congress last month extended and expanded that popular incentive through April. But many experts believe the effects will be muted as foreclosures, high unemployment and potentially higher interest rates bring new pressures to bear on the housing market next year. 'The foreclosure outlook is not a good one,' Patrick Newport, U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight wrote in a note to clients Tuesday morning. And 'despite the recent positive reports on housing prices, we believe that prices have further to fall.' (Optional add end) David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's, said in a statement that that while government policy remains consistent and sales of previously owned homes strong there were reasons for concern. A potential wave of foreclosures and the expiration of a slew of government programs meant to bolster the housing market next year could weigh on the market next year, he said. 'All in all, this report should be described as flat,' Blitzer said. 'Coming after a series of solid gains, these data are likely to spark worries that home prices are about to take a second dip.' 