Integrated Asset Services' latest house price index (HPI)reported a 0.5% drop in national home prices for the month of July.The decline breaks consecutive months of price gains sinceFebruary.

While Midwestern and mid-Atlantic residents experienced slightprice gains, Mountain West and New England states experienced theworst home devaluations.

Drilling down to metropolitan statistical area, Las Vegasexperienced a 4.8% drop for the month. Lady Luck has frowned uponLas Vegas since August 2006, with month over month consecutivedrops; July represents its largest monthly plunge in that run.

Both Denver and San Francisco experienced 3.8% July declines.The San Francisco MSA had shown signs of life this year,experiencing a nearly 8% price increase overall from Februarythrough June. San Francisco County posted a 0.8% gain for July, butAlameda County home prices dropped 6.8%, followed by Contra Costaand Marin Counties, which lost 4.4% and 4.0%, respectively.

Chicago also experienced neighborhood price volatility, despitea low-profile 0.8% drop for the windy city. Western suburbs in Kaneand Kendall Counties gained value in July, with Kane County up 5.3%for the month. However, Lake, McHenry and Will counties lost 5.6%,1.7% and 4.7% for the month, respectively.

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