to modify that plan," the justices said, talking about state House districts in north and east Texas.

The court acted quickly, just 11 days after hearing arguments and a month and a half after intervening in the case, but set no deadline for new maps to emerge from the court in Texas. State officials have said they need to have something in place by February 1 to hold primary elections, already delayed once, on April 3. The Texas Republican party also has said that Texas may have no voice in the Republican presidential nominating process if the primary is held later than mid-April.

The complicated legal fight over redistricting in Texas is playing out in three federal courts. In addition to the supreme court and federal court in San Antonio,from the previous month. Forty-four cities reported higher prices in February, down from January's 52.

The declines in the four top-tier cities contrast with a steady rise in prices in China's vast spread of smaller cities. The fastest price gain was seen in Nanchong, a lower-tier city of about 6 million in Southwestern China's Sichuan province, where values of new homes rose 1.7 percent on-month in February.

Price growth in tier-3 cities in general was unchanged from January, the NBS said, without giving details.

China removed sales prices for affordable housing in its January calculations, which prevents like-for-like comparisons with growth data before 2018.

Home price growth began to slow in the second half of 2017 as the government sought to deal with bubbles in its property markets, following almost two years