Unadjusted Increase

Prices in the 20 cities climbed before adjusting for seasonal changes, rising 1.1 percent in June from the prior month after climbing 1 percent in May.

The year-over-year gauge provides better indications of trends in prices, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller group. The panel includes Karl Case and Robert Shiller, the economists who created the index.

All of the 20 cities in the index showed a year-over-year decline in June, led by an 11 percent drop in Minneapolis.

The smallest 12-month decrease was in Washington, which showed a 1.2 percent drop.

"This month's report showed mixed signals for recovery in home prices," David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee, said in a statement. "We are back to regional housing markets, rather than a national housing market where everything rose and fell together."

With joblessness hovering around 9 percent for a second year, housing has not recovered at the same rate as the rest of the U.S. Existing home sales fell to 4.91 million last year, the lowest level since 1997.

Housing 'Fragile'

"Consumer confidence is still weak, and the housing sector remains in a fragile state," Robert Toll, chairman of Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder, said in Aug. 24 call with analysts. "The nation's economy continues to suffer from the lack of jobs in housing construction and the related manufacturing and service sectors that a decent new-home market would typically generate."

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, speaking last week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said "an overhang of distressed and foreclosed properties, tight credit conditions for builders and potential homebuyers, and ongoing concerns by both potential borrowers and lenders about continued house price declines" have held back the housing market.