BEIJING -- Residential housing prices in China's 70 large and medium-sized cities continued to see narrowed year-on-year declines in August, while the prices also dropped monthly, official data showed on Monday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated in a press release that the prices of new homes in the country's four top-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- decreased by 0.9 percent from a year ago, a smaller decline than the 1.1 percent drop recorded in July. Notably, bucking the overall trend, Shanghai, the country's economic hub, recorded a 5.9 percent rise.

Other major cities also reported slower declines, with new-home prices in second-tier cities down 2.4 percent, easing from a 2.8 percent fall in July, and third-tier cities saw a 3.7 percent decrease, compared with a 4.2 percent slide the previous month.

On a month-to-month basis, the downward momentum in new home prices also eased in first- and second-tier cities, although third-tier markets experienced a slightly wider decline.

The NBS data also showed that the prices continued to edge lower for existing homes in major cities last month.