Home Prices Get Another Bump in May

""Lender Processing Services'"":http://www.lpsvcs.com/Pages/default.aspx (LPS) Home Price Index (HPI) inched up another 1.3 percent from April to May, the company reported.

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Based on transactions recorded in May, LPS' index rose to a reading of $226,000, an increase of 7.9 percent over May 2012. The index has climbed 5.6 percent since December of last year.

As of May, the HPI was down 16.3 percent from its June 2006 peak of $270,000.

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Nevada showed the largest monthly price increase by far, posting a 3.0 percent gain over April. It was followed by California (1.8 percent), Arizona (1.8 percent), North Dakota (1.7 percent), and the District of Columbia (1.7 percent).

At the bottom of the list, Oklahoma reported the smallest monthly gain at 0.5 percent, followed by Louisiana (0.6 percent), Arkansas (0.6 percent), Kentucky (0.7 percent), and Iowa (0.8 percent, matching New Jersey, Vermont, and New Hampshire).

For yet another month, the West dominated the list of metros reporting price month-over-month increases. The top spot was Las Vegas, posting a 3.2 percent gain. Following that were San Francisco, Reno, and Sacramento--each with a 2.5 percent improvement--followed by a number of smaller California markets experiencing 2.3 percent gains.

The bottom 10 metro ""movers"" were more diverse, representing Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa, Louisiana, and New Jersey. In the Garden State, Ocean City placed last in terms of price increases with a 0.1 percent bump.