BEIJING — China's home prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities displayed a generally stable trend in July, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Aug 15.

New home prices in four first-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou — edged up 0.3 percent month-on-month in July, according to the data.

New home prices in 31 second-tier cities stayed flat month-on-month, while 35 third-tier cities saw a month-on-month decline of 0.3 percent, the same level as that in June.

Last month, 40 out of the 70 cities saw a month-on-month drop in new home sales prices, the data showed.

Prices of resale homes in the four first-tier cities increased 0.2 percent in July, widening 0.1 percentage points from that in June.

Second-tier and third-tier cities saw their prices of resale homes inch down 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent on a monthly basis, respectively.

On a yearly basis, new home prices in the four first-tier cities rose 3.1 percent in July, while resale home prices in these cities climbed 0.9 percent.

At an important meeting in late July, Chinese leadership urged upholding the principle that "housing is for living in, not for speculation," making full and good use of the policy toolkit by adopting city-specific policies, and supporting people's essential housing needs as well as their needs for better housing.

The generally downward trend of the real estate market has eased with the introduction of a slew of stabilizing policies, NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press conference on Aug 15.

The market is expected to maintain stable and healthy development as long-term mechanism continues to improve and city-specific policies gradually take effect, Fu added.