UPDATE: FHFA: July US Home Prices Up Seasonally Adjusted 0.3%

U.S. home prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in July, a government agency reported Tuesday, as some of the country's worst-hit housing markets showed signs of recovering.

Still, prices, which fell 4.2% for the 12 months that ended in July, remain 10.5% below their April 2007 peak, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said. The agency also said it revised the 0.5% price increase it reported for June downward to a 0.1% price rise.

FHFA's monthly index is calculated using purchase prices for homes backing mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE).

Prices along the West Coast and Alaska and Hawaii climbed 1.6% in July, the FHFA reported. The census' Mountain division, which includes some of the hardest-hit states of Nevada and Florida, rose 0.3% during the month. Meanwhile, the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions rose 0.6% and 1.0%, respectively.

Those gains were offset by price declines in the Midwest, New England and parts of the South. The latter region, encompassing Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, saw prices drop 0.9% in July.

-Jessica Holzer, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9228; [e-mail]