NEW YORK — Home prices rose for the fifth month in a row in October, but the recovery is shaky with only 11 of the 20 metro areas tracked showing gains.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released today edged up 0.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted reading of 145.36 in October from September. Without adjusting for seasonal factors, the index was flat.

The index was off 7.3 percent from October last year, nearly matching expectations of economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Many economists, however, are predicting a double dip in prices this winter as foreclosures increase and government support wanes.

"I'd be very surprised if we don't go below the lows we hit this year," Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning Washington think tank. "We still have a very glutted housing market."

The index is now up 3.4 percent from its bottom in May, but still almost 30 percent below its peak in April 2006.