China's home prices slightly up in January

BEIJING -- China continued to see a generally stable housing market in January, with more cities witnessing slight month-on-month increases in home prices, official data showed Thursday.

In January, 36 out of 70 large and medium-sized cities saw month-on-month rises in new home sales prices, up from 15 in December, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. A total of 13 cities witnessed higher resale home prices, up from 7 in the previous month.

New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- edged up 0.2 percent month-on-month in January, according to the data.

New home prices in 31 second-tier cities increased 0.1 percent month on month, reversing the 0.3-percent drop registered in December, while 35 third-tier cities saw a month-on-month decline of 0.1 percent.

Prices of resale homes in the four first-tier cities went up 0.4 percent month-on-month in January, compared with a 0.5-percent reduction in the previous month. The prices in second-tier and third-tier cities edged down 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent month on month, respectively, during the period.