All the home price averages we've picked over the past year have shown a flattening of Tampa Bay housing values since the early spring of 2009.

The story was generally the same whether you're talking about the Florida Association of Realtors, the S&P Case-Shiller home price index or Zillow.com.

With the exception of Case-Shiller, which purports to measure repeat sales of individual homes, home price compilers don't smooth out the statistical distortions emerging from increased sales of smaller, cheaper homes.

That's why it pays to examine the per-square-foot prices of homes. But guess what? The story there is pretty much the same.

Per-square-foot housing prices in Tampa Bay have held fairly steady since about March. Check out Page 6 of this Tampa area report for a handy chart.

The story was the same in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties. By December of 2009, housing prices had changed nary a bit since March, excepting a brief unsustainable rise in the summer.

If you explore the housing report further, you'll notice that distressed properties made up a huge percentage of sales by the end of last year.

Conclusion: The market's enjoyed steady overall home prices despite choking on foreclosure and pre-foreclosure sales. It could be a lot worse.

Is it too soon to call a home price bottom? Is it a coincidence that price flattening began with the approval last year of the $8,000 home buyer tax credit? Will prices fall again when the credit disappears this spring?