Home prices dithered quarter-over-quarter, rising only by 0.3 percent as events in the broader economy, nationally and globally, helped shape housing markets.

Clear Capital, a real estate valuations company, released the Home Data Index Thursday, tracking movement in home prices on both a regional and national basis.

“The overall market stability in this month’s report gives me hope that housing markets are settling after a very turbulent two years,” Alex Villacorta, director of research and analytics at Clear Capital, said in a statement.

“With only a one percent drop in national home prices since January and virtually no change in prices over the last six months, strong evidence suggests the big swings that many market participants are accustomed to could become a thing of the past,” he added.

Quarterly price movements entered a parallel period across the United States, with prices in the Midwest rising to 1.2 percent as figures for those in the West fell by 0.8 percent.

Nationally, home prices fluctuated year-over-year by falling 2.2 percent, a marginal improvement over 2.8-percent declines seen over the last 14 consecutive months, the company said.

Only prices in Atlanta – one of the hardest-hit areas in the nation – wobbled amid a period of national stability, as home prices fell there quarter-over-quarter by 9.7 percent.

News from Clear Capital that home prices are stabilizing arrives on the cusp of significant events in the broader economy, nationally and globally.

The Labor Department found the U.S. economy adding 120,000 jobs over November, slashing unemployment from 9 percent to 8.6 percent.

Consumer spending skyrocketed to record highs in the same vein as more Americans visited stores on Black Friday two weeks ago.

But as wider signs of recovery and stabilization emerge in the economy, other troubling events – particularly from abroad – keep the housing economy and mortgage markets in stasis.

Finance Web site Bankrate.com and mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported few swings in mortgage rates this week as investors fleeing Europe helped widen Treasury yields by investing in Treasury debt.

This follows groundbreaking summits in Europe, as finance ministers and heads of state from France and Germany cobbled together an historic fiscal pact to prevent further deterioration in the euro zone.