On Tuesday the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that home prices tumbled by 6.3% in January, down from the prior year, while prices unexpectedly rose on a seasonally adjusted basis 1.7% from December to January. Analysts had forecasted home prices to fall 0.9%.

The “unexpected rise” in January was partially due to stronger sales in some markets, FHFA said. The FHFA index attempts to control for such changes in sales patterns, but the adjustment is not perfect, the agency said. The agency warned that its estimate was uncertain and subject to large revisions.

In the past year, prices are down in all nine regions, led by the Pacific with a 21.1% decline. The smallest price decline has been the 0.4% drop in the West South Central region, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.