Black Knight Financial Services says that its Home Price Index (HPI) inched up only 0.1 percent from August to September.  Monthly appreciation has declined every month since May and this was the smallest monthly increase since January's identical gain.  The September HPI was $266,000.

The HPI has increased by an average of 0.63 percent per month in 2016.  The September HPI is now 0.6 percent below the peak reached nationally in July 2006, $268,000 and has increased by 33.3 percent since prices bottomed out in 2012.

The year-over-year gain in the HPI was 5.4 percent, a slight uptick from the 5.3 percent reported in each of the previous three months.

For the third consecutive month, the most aggressive home price appreciation was in New York State.  Prices there increased by 0.9 percent from August.  Florida and Utah each posted gains of 0.6 percent, followed by Washington, Arizona, and Idaho, all up 0.5 percent.

Several states saw prices decline in September, led by Connecticut with a drop of 0.9 percent, Missouri and Illinois were each down by 0.5 percent, and California, New Jersey, and Alaska all saw declines of 0.3 percent.

Florida and Washington together had nine of the ten top performing metropolitan areas while St. Louis, Missouri was the only metro to post a loss.  Prices there fell another 0.7 percent.

Among the 20 largest states tracked by Black Knight, seven hit new price peaks during the month; Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.  Seven of the 40 largest metros also hit new peaks, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, San Antonio, and Seattle.

Black Knight's HPI utilizes repeat sales data from public records and its own loan-level mortgage performance data.