Home prices drop for the sixth straight month affecting 19 of 20 metro areas being monitored in the S&P/Case Shiller index. The monthly home-price index tracks 20 major U.S. metro areas dropped 12.7 percent in February this year compared to the same month last year.  

The index was at its lowest since it began in 2000. The index gauges the value of homes over time, based on price pairs for repeat sales of the same homes. Las Vegas got steepest annual decline among the 20 areas in February, plummeting by 22.8 percent from its index level in February 2007.

Miami followed with a 21.7 percent annual decline in February. Contrary to Charlotte, N.C., which had a 1.5 percent annual gain in the price index in February. "There is no sign of a bottom in the numbers," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Standard & Poor's Index Committee, in a statement. 

Index values have declined for all of the 20 metro areas in every month since September 2007, and eight of the 20 metro areas and the composite 20-city index had its single largest monthly decline in February, Blitzer also reported.