China's home prices down in July

BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Fewer Chinese cities reported month-on-month increases in home prices in July, official data showed Wednesday.

Last month, 20 out of 70 large and medium-sized cities saw month-on-month increases in new home prices, down from 31 in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, six cities witnessed higher resale home prices, down from seven in June.

In comparison with the month-earlier levels, new home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- stayed flat in July for the second consecutive month.

In 31 second-tier cities, prices of new homes went down 0.2 percent from June, while new housing prices in 35 third-tier cities went down 0.3 percent.

Compared with July last year, new home prices in first-tier cities and second-tier cities increased by 1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively, while prices of new homes in third-tier cities decreased by 1.5 percent.

Home prices in the second-hand market saw a year-on-year decline in July. Resale home prices in first-tier cities dipped 1.4 percent from a year ago, while those in second and third-tier cities dropped 2.7 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively, the data revealed.