Home prices fell in August vs July: FHFA

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. home prices fell 0.6 percent in August versus July, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said on Thursday.

For the 12 months ending in August, U.S. home prices fell 5.9 percent, and the cumulative decline since the April 2007 peak is 6.5 percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index.

The FHFA monthly index, formerly called the OFHEO monthly house price index, is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae (FNM.P) or Freddie Mac (FRE.P). The index was introduced in the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's fourth quarter 2007 House Price Index, or HPI, report.

The report is found on Web site www.ofheo.gov.

(Reporting by Julie Haviv)