Home Prices Rise 0.2% in September, Still 14% Below Peak

National home prices rose 0.2 percent over the month in September, reaching $232,000 for the month, according to ""Lender Processing Services' (LPS)"":http://www.lpsvcs.com/Pages/default.aspx Home Price Index, which was released Monday. Year-over-year prices rose 9 percent in September, according to LPS.

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At their current level, prices are about 14 percent below their peak reached in June 2006.

Nevada and Connecticut posted the greatest price changes over the month--though in opposite directions.

Home prices in Nevada jumped 0.8 percent over the month, while prices in Connecticut fell 0.9 percent.

Two Southern states followed Nevada, tying for the second-greatest price increases over the month according to LPS--Georgia and South Carolina. Both states posted price gains of 0.7 percent in September.

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Illinois and Florida both experienced 0.5 percent price increases, and Washington D.C. and Wisconsin both experienced 0.4 percent gains.

Rounding out the top 10, Arizona, Texas, and Indiana all posted 0.3 percent increases in home prices over the month.

Several Northeaster states joined Connecticut on the list of top 10 price declines in September. New Hampshire (-0.6 percent), Massachusetts (-0.5 percent), Pennsylvania (-0.4 percent), Vermont (-0.3 percent), and New Jersey (-0.2 percent) all fell in the ranks.

Colorado (-0.4 percent), Alaska (-0.3 percent), and Iowa (-0.2 percent) were the exceptions.

Among metros, the spread in price changes over the month of September was slightly larger, according to LPS' data.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Torrington, Connecticut; and Hartford, Connecticut, all posted 1 percent price changes over the month, with Myrtle Beach experiencing an increase and the two Northeastern metros posting 1 percent declines.

Six of the top 10 metros posting price increases in September are located in the South.

Nine of the 10 metros with the greatest price declines are located in the Northeast with Kennewick, Washington, as the outlier.

The four metros with the greatest decreases were all in Connecticut. After Hartford and Torrington; Bridgeport and Norwich posted 0.9 percent declines.