The Central Valley housing market has improved slightly this year as home prices inched up, but the road to recovery is expected to be long and slow.

During the California Association of Realtor's "2011 California Housing Market Forecast," real estate experts predicted only modest gains in home prices for the Fresno area next year.

That's because foreclosures remain high throughout the Valley, experts said.

"All of the interest in housing during the boom has clearly gone away," said Leslie Appleton-Young, vice president and chief economist for the California Association of Realtors. "[Fresno] is in the bottom of what is going to be a bumpy period."

Getting home prices back up has been a challenge for the Valley. In Fresno County, the median home price was $157,000 in August, according to DataQuick, a San Diego-based real estate firm. In April 2006, before the downturn, the median price was $299,500.

Statewide, the association expects home sales to increase slightly by about 2% in 2011. The median home price is expected to increase 11.5% to $306,500 by the end of this year and increase another 2% in 2011 to $312,500, according to the forecast.