The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) monthly House Price Index increased 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from June to July. For the prior 12 months ending in July, US home prices fell 4.2% and the index is 10.5% below its April ’07 peak. The FHFA said the July ’09 index is approximately at the March ’05 index value. Regionally, the Pacific division — which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington — experienced a 1.6% increase in monthly price changes, the most of any region. But for the last 12 months ending in July, the region experienced a 9% decrease, second only to the Mountain division, which saw a 9.8% decrease. The Mountain region — Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Utah and Wyoming — experienced a 0.3% monthly increase in July, the first such increase since April. The East South Central division (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee) experienced a 0.9% monthly decrease in prices, the biggest decline of any region. Prices in the area are down 1.7% over the 12-month period. The only region to see an increase over the 12 months prior to July was West South Central (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas), which experienced a 0.1% increase. But the region saw prices slip 0.2% in July. Write to Austin Kilgore.