Home price index falls 0.2 percent in August

WASHINGTON (AP) — Home prices are weakening around the country, even in metro areas that were showing strength earlier in the year.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released today fell 0.2 percent in August from July. Fifteen of the cities showed monthly price declines. Prices are expected to drop further in the coming months.

The biggest drop came in Phoenix. Prices there fell 1.3 percent from a month earlier. And prices in three California cities that had been rebounding — San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles — fell by less than 1 percent in August from July.