Home prices continue to rise modestly in the St. Louis area and in the nation as a whole, the latest report from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight says.

For St. Louis, prices rose 4.22 percent between the first  quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007. They rose 0.61 percent in the first quarter as compared to the fourth quarter.

Nationally, prices were up 4.3 percent in the latest 12 months, and 0.5 percent in the latest three months.

The OFHEO figures are among the more reliable house-price measures, because they track repeat sales or refinancings of the same properties.

A look at OFHEO’s maps shows that real-estate pricing is still a very local phenomenon. Seven states showed price declines during the first quarter, and Massachusetts and Michigan had 12-month declines. Seven other states showed double-digit annual price growth, led by Utah at 17.0%