The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the agency that oversees the big mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said in its quarterly report that home prices dipped 0.4 percent nationwide in the July-September period, compared with the previous quarter.
Compared with the third quarter of 2006, the agency's index of U.S home prices posted an increase of 1.8 percent, but it was the smallest year-over-year increase since 1995.
"While select markets still maintain robust rates of appreciation, our newest data show price weakening in a very significant portion of the country," agency director James B. Lockhart said in a statement. "Indeed, in the third quarter, more than 20 states experienced price declines and, in some cases, those declines are substantial."
Many of the cities and states experiencing the sharpest declines in the quarter were the same areas that had posted the sharpest increases a couple of years ago during the sizzling housing boom, the agency noted.
Price declines were steepest in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and Rhode Island.
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