Home prices in the country's biggest cities have risen to their highest level in nearly two years, putting real estate on "its most stable ground since crashing five years ago," the Los Angeles Times reports. 

The report says Atlanta saw one of the biggest increases in July compared with June, with prices up 2.6 percent, but the city's real estate market prices were still down 9.9 percent year-over-year. The biggest improvement from a year earlier was in Phoenix, Ariz., the report says, where prices jumped 16.6 percent.

And consumer confidence is up — the percentage of people who saw business conditions as good rose from 15.3 percent in August to 15.5 percent and consumers were more upbeat about the direction of the economy over the next six months, with 18.2 percent expecting business conditions to improve, compared with 16.7 percent last month.

Tell us whether your confidence level is up by voting in the poll below. Something to add? Post your thoughts in comments below. 

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