U.S. home prices increased about 1% in July, compared to June, and were up 8.8% compared to July 2012, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), formulated using data provided by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
July marked the 18th consecutive month that home prices increased on a seasonally adjusted basis. In June, home prices increased about 0.7% compared to May.
Although home prices have been rising steadily for the past year-and-a-half, they are currently about 9.6% below the April 2007 peak.
Looking at the nine census divisions that the report covers, the East South Central division saw prices decrease 0.7% in July, compared to June, while the Pacific division saw prices increase by 2.2%.
Year-over-year, the East South Central division saw prices increase 3.8% in July, compared to July 2012, while the Pacific division saw prices increase a whopping 20.8%.
The report is in keeping with Lender Processing Services' (LPS) HPI, which shows that U.S. home prices rose 0.6% in July, compared to June, and were up 8.7% compared to July 2012.
The average home price in the U.S. increased to $231,000, compared to $229,000 in June, and $212,000 in July 2012, according to LPS.
That's down 14.7% compared to the peak average home price of $270,000 in June 2006.
States that saw the largest increases in home prices from June to July include California (0.5%), Florida (1.0%), New Jersey (0.5%), New York (0.8%) and Texas (0.6%), according to LPS.
Metropolitan areas that saw the largest increases in home prices from June to July included Chicago (0.8%), Dallas (0.6%), Los Angeles (0.3%), New York (0.8%) and Washington D.C. (0.4%).
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