U.S. home prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in July, as some of the country's worst-hit housing markets showed signs of recovery.
Prices fell 4.2% for the 12 months that ended in July, however, and remain 10.5% below their April 2007 peak, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said. It also said it revised the 0.5% price increase it reported for June downward, to a 0.1% increase.
The FHFA's monthly index is calculated using purchase prices for homes backing mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Prices along the West Coast and Alaska and Hawaii climbed 1.6% in July, the FHFA reported.
Prices in the Rocky Mountain region, which includes some of the hardest-hit states, such as Nevada and Arizona, rose 0.3% during the month.
Prices rose 0.6% in the Southeast and 1% in the Middle Atlantic.
Those gains were offset by price declines in the Midwest, New England and parts of the South.
