Could the battered U.S. commercial real estate market be starting to rebound? Moody’s/REAL registered its second month-over-month commercial property price increase in December, a 4.1 percent jump that represented the largest such increase in nine years, according to a report released today. Transaction volume was also up, with a total of $9 billion from 716 transactions, consistent with standard end-of-the-year trends. Despite the positive signs, December prices were down 29.2 percent over one year ago and 40.8 percent off of their peak values. Moody’s was hesitant to conclude from the data that the market is on a steadily upward trend, but, according to managing director Nick Levidy, “we do believe that the period of large price declines is over.” TRD

Foreclosure filings shot up 21 percent last year after 2.8 million U.S. properties — one in every 45 households — received notices from their lenders, according to real estate data firm RealtyTrac. While foreclosure activity slowed by 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, as compared with the third, it was up 18 percent year-over-year. In December 2009, 349,000 properties received foreclosure notices, a 14 percent month-over-month increase, despite the fact that a number of lenders agreed to foreclosure moratoria for the holidays. December’s was the first monthly increase since July’s peak at more than 361,000 foreclosure filings, RealtyTrac’s report says. Filings had been decreasing since then because of trial loan modifications, state legislation, and a backlog of foreclosures, said James Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac. Nevada led the country in its foreclosure rate, with filings reported on more than 10 percent of homes. Arizona and Florida rounded out the top three. Moody’s Economy.com has predicted that 2.4 million homes will be foreclosed or auctioned off in 2010. [USA Today] and [Reuters]

While the rest of the country looks forward to a bit of a respite in the hard, grinding slide of property prices, New Yorkers will enjoy less relief in 2010. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, said prices are still inflated compared to rents, eroding the possibility of price improvements in the near future. The New York City metro area ranked 84th-worst out of the 100 markets in his forecast, with the 2009 median home price of $416,730 expected to fall another 15.63 percent, ahead of his national forecast range of 5 percent to 10 percent. Rounding out the regional duds, Nassau County in Long Island ranked 76th, with the $368,260 expected to drop 13.14 percent and Newark, N.J. was No. 71, with the $367,380 median slated to drop 11.29 percent. [Fortune via CNN Money]