* Seen fading on tax credit end, unemployment, foreclosures

(Adds quotes, details, byline)

By Lynn Adler

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prices of U.S. single-family
homes gained more than expected in June and rose in the second
quarter, reflecting the lingering boost from homebuyer tax
credits that ended in April, Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller
home price indexes showed on Tuesday.

The effects of buyer tax credits have largely filtered
through and home prices will be hard-pressed to sustain these
gains with unemployment still near 10 percent, economists
agree.

"This is the last hurrah for the tax credit," said Gary
Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Co. in Springfield,
New Jersey. "The data we've seen for July suggests considerable
weakness in both sales and prices."

The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan
areas rose 0.3 percent in June from May on a seasonally
adjusted basis. The rise was better than the 0.2 percent
increase expected by economists polled by Reuters, though
slower than the 0.5 percent rise in May.

Unadjusted, the 20-city index gained 1 percent following
May's 1.3 percent jump. In the year, prices rose 4.2 percent,
surpassing the Reuters forecast of 3.9 percent.

S&P, which publishes the indexes, also said home prices
nationally rose 4.4 percent in the second quarter after a 2.8
percent drop in the first quarter.

Prices rose in 17 of the 20 metro areas in June, S&P said,
adding that in the first half of the year 15 of the 20 areas
had positive annual growth rates. The housing market is in
better shape than a year ago, S&P said.

Most cities posted smaller price gains in June, though, and
the annual growth rates slowed in 14 of the metro areas.

"The worry starts when you remember that the Homebuyers'
Tax Credit has expired, foreclosures are still at high levels,
and July data on home sales and starts were very, very weak,"
David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P, said
in a statement.

"The inventory of unsold homes and months' supply data were
particularly troubling," he said, adding that "if this relative
weakness in demand continues, it will likely filter through to
home prices in coming months."

Home prices in the 20 metro areas tracked by S&P remain
28.4 percent below the peak set in mid-2006.

July sales of existing homes eased to the slowest pace in
15 years and new home sales dropped to the slowest pace on
record, the latest evidence that tight lending and the loss of
home equity have stifled buying and mobility.

Unemployment and foreclosures help make housing a ship
that will be painfully slow to turn around.

The recent home price improvement "doesn't say that housing
is back on firm footing, and we're a long way from that," said
Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at Hugh Johnson Advisors
LLC in Albany. "There is still need for help, and that help
probably will come from the federal government."
(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica and Caroline
Valetkevitch; Editing by Andrea Ricci)