One closely watched gauge of housing prices shows median sales prices in the Washington market stalled in September, though prices were still higher than a year ago.

The S&P/Case-Shiller House Price Index shows Washington prices in September were unchanged from August. Compared to September 2011, prices were up 3.2 percent.

The index showed average price gains in the nation’s 20 largest cities of 0.3 percent from August to September and 3.0 percent from a year earlier.

Home prices nationally had the sixth consecutive month of increasing prices.

Some of the hardest-hit markets by the housing bust several years ago are among those seeing the biggest recovery in prices. Median sales prices in Phoenix in September were up 20.4 percent from a year ago. Prices in Detroit were up 7.6 percent.

Even so, Detroit, along with Atlanta and Las Vegas, still have prices that are below levels in January 2000. The median price in Detroit is 20 percent lower than it was 12 years ago.