Home values in the Boston area declined 1.4 percent last month, dropping at a steeper rate than the national year-over-year change of 0.9 percent, according to a recent Zillow Home Value Index report.

The home value index in the Boston area dropped to $306,600, making it among the priciest markets in the report. New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego were the only cities to have higher values.

Meanwhile, rents in the Hub continued to climb, posting a 3.6 percent rise to $1,884 in May. The national rent index also rose 4.6 percent to $1,252. Rents rose on a monthly basis in 77 percent of the 344 markets covered by Zillow.

National home values continued to decline on an annual basis, falling 0.9 percent from May 2011 to May 2012. This is the smallest year-over-year decline since October 2007, according to the May Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.

Home values continued their rapid increase in the Phoenix metro, rising 9 percent annually. In the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro, home values rose 5.2 percent year-over-year.

"It is promising to see consecutive months of national home value increases, especially during a period in which we’d expected more downward pressure due to foreclosures," said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries. "Attention has now shifted to the tug-of-war situation with inventory, where buyers want to buy but sellers don’t want to – or can’t – sell. This inventory phenomenon, due to both the broader issue of negative equity that is keeping people in their homes and to rational seller behavior at a market bottom, will make for a more volatile housing recovery than what we initially expected."