INSTANT VIEW: June US home prices plunge from year ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prices of U.S. single-family homes plunged a record 15.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, surpassing the steep drop in the first quarter, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller national home price index reported on Tuesday.

KEY POINTS:

* The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas slipped 0.5 percent in June from May, bringing the measure down 15.9 percent from June 2007.

* S&P said its composite index of 10 metropolitan areas slipped 0.6 percent in June versus May, for a 17.0 percent year-over-year drop.

COMMENTS:

MARC PADO, U.S. market strategist, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. Technical analyst:

"We're probably getting to a point where at least the median price is starting to spur on some buying interest and that's the first step-- prices getting down to a level."

"When we remove that inventory, we're going to start to see some real improvement, but we don't expect that to happen until the first (quarter) of '09."

DAVID SLOAN, ECONOMIST, 4CAST LTD, NEW YORK: