Report: Home prices decline in July

During the spring, U.S. home prices showed slight increases, including across all regions, probably spurred by a federal homebuyers tax credit that expired April 30. 

The index is 13.8 percent below its peak in April 2007. 

Banks repossessed a total of 95,364 properties in August, a 25 percent increase from the same period in 2009 and a 2 percent increase May, which had set the previous record. Foreclosure filings of all types, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, increased to 338,836 in the month, a 4 percent jump from July, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based seller of housing data.

Of the nine regions tracked by the agency, only two showed price increases — 1.1 percent in the Pacific and 0.3 in the East South Central district. 

The National Association of Realtors has reported that it would take more than a year to clear the inventory of houses on the market.

Sales of existing homes fell off 27 percent in July to a 3.83 million annual pace, the lowest level on record, according to NAR on Aug. 24. July sales of new homes dropped to an annual pace of 276,000, the fewest since data began in 1963, the Commerce Department reported Aug. 25.