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Lately, the expectation has been for home prices to continue rising, but a recent report from ""Zillow"":http://www.zillow.com/ put a damper this view.
[IMAGE]Home prices dropped in August month-over-month after rising for nine consecutive months.
However, the drop was mere a 0.1 percent. At an average of $152,100, prices were still up on a yearly basis, showing an increase of 1.7 percent.
""Home values took a small hit in August, but this shouldn't be cause for alarm,"" said Zillow Chief Economist ""Stan Humphries"":http://www.zillow.com/corp/WhoWeAre.htm. ""The back half of the year is always softer than the front half, and this year is no exception.
""We've been encouraging folks to focus on the longer term trends and not monthly blips. Home values will rise a little and fall a little, month by month, in the near future, but we believe the overall trend will remain positive albeit still below normal rates of appreciation,"" he added.
The larger markets to see monthly price decreases were Chicago (-0.7 percent), New York (-0.3 percent) and Boston (-0.2 percent) metros.
On the other hand, rent increased 0.2 percent on a monthly basis and 5.9 percent yearly, rising to of $1,280.
Rents have climbed higher for seven straight months, with some metros seeing double-digit yearly increases, including Chicago (12.8 percent), the Baltimore (12.4 percent) and the Philadelphia (10.5 percent).
Foreclosures in August fell, with 6 out of every 10,000 homes becoming a foreclosure, a decrease from 6.4 out of every 10,000 homes the month before.
