House prices in the Twin Cities metro and beyond continue to rise, but at a much more moderate pace. In the Twin Cities prices were up 5.4 percent during July, slightly below the national average, according to the latest S & P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which uses public records to track repeat sales of the same property across the U.S.

Nineteen of the 20 cities tracked by the group saw lower annual returns during July. Las Vegas, Miami and San Francisco were the only cities to report double-digit annual gains. All cities but one posted a month-to-month gain, but 17 of them saw smaller increases in July as compared to last month

"While the year-over-year figures are trending downward, home prices are still rising month-to-month although at a slower rate than what we are used to seeing over the past couple of years" said David Blitzer, chairman of S & P's Index Committee.