Long way to dig out

Three of the five metro areas of the Gulf Coast posted higher annual home prices over the past year, but there's still a long way to go to full recovery, according to a home price index calculated by the government.

And recent gains in home price appreciation may be slowing as the buying season hits a lull. Only the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area posted a gain in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, the government says.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's all-transactions home price index for the most recent quarter, which includes purchase and refinance mortgages, shows slight improvement in some areas of the Gulf Coast.

But every area shows home prices fell more than 40% over the last five years. That's a lot of ground to make up.