Closely following figures from a market peak in 2006, home prices across the country trailed south by 3.8 percent year-over-year in August, according to a recent home price index.

Lender Processing Services (LPS) reported findings from a home price index that connected the dots from 13,500 ZIP codes, which it gauged on five qualitative levels.

Commenting on the figures, Kyle Lundestedt, managing director with LPS Applied Analytics, said in a statement that the price declines “ended a series of increases during the spring of this year; a pattern that has occurred each year since 2009.”

He added that “early, partial data for September sales indicates a likely further decline of approximately 1.1 percent to come.”

He said that the national home price firmed up on average around $205,000, down 3.8 percent from August 2010 and 0.4 percent from January this year.

LPS valued total U.S. housing inventory at $10.6 trillion at the peak of the crisis – a number that now stands at $7.65 trillion by the end of August this year.

Rapid price fluctuations from 2007 through 2009 slashed prices from $282,000 to $56,000, reflecting a 13.8-percent decline on average.

LPS found most home prices falling into the negatives for 10 metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, by 10.5 percent, and Phoenix, by 5.2 percent.

Home prices meanwhile shot up to 10.8 percent and 4.5 percent for Detroit and Pittsburgh, respectively, the company said.

LPS noted that price far less substantial declines occurred in Detroit, Honolulu, Miami, and Pittsburgh at 5.3 percent, 3.3 percent, 0.6 percent, and 3.2 percent, respectively.

The plunge in home prices on average for LPS tracks reports that figures for the same dropped by 1.1 percent over September, as reported by CoreLogic.

Paul Diggle, a property economist with consultancy Capital Economics, said of the figures in a note, “Prices may well fall further in the closing months of the year and, despite housing appearing very undervalued, prices probably won’t rise for several years.”