More bad news - mostly - from the widely followed S&P/Case-Shiller index. L.A.-area prices fell 1.6 percent in July from a month earlier and 26.2 percent from a year earlier. As has been the pattern, L.A. is among the worst-performing metro areas (only Phoenix, Vegas and Miami have had bigger price drops). Among all markets surveyed, the index fell 16.3 percent from a year earlier, more than was forecast. It has fallen every month since January 2007. One bit of promising news: Six of the cities surveyed posted July price increases from the previous month. Here's the press release and here's a Bloomberg story.