NEW YORK CITY—The slowdown in home price growthcontinued in March, as the S&P/Case-Shiller Home PriceIndices released Tuesday showed a 12.4% year-over-yeargain for the 20-City Composite Index, the smallest increase sincelast July, while the 10-City Composite rose 12.6% Y-O-Y. However,two cities in the 20-city index, Dallas and Denver, have reachedall-time peaks, and separately the Federal Housing FinanceAgency reported Tuesday that home prices have nowincreased for 11 consecutive quarters.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that a survey of 28 economistsyielded a median projection of an 11.8% Y-O-Y increase in the20-city index. Estimates ranged from gains of 10.8% to 12%,slightly shy of the actual gains.

The Y-O-Y changes in the 10- and 20-city indices“suggest that prices are rising more slowly,” says David M.Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P DowJones Indices. “Annual price increases for the two composites haveslowed in the last four months and 13 cities saw annual pricechanges moderate in March. The National Index also showeddecelerating gains in the last quarter.” All 20 cities rose Y-O-Y,while all but New York City increased from a month earlier.