Home prices fell at the fastest annual rate during the first quarter of 2009, according to a report released Tuesday. But the pace of monthly decline decelerated.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller National Home Price index dropped a record 19.1 percent during the first three months compared with the first quarter of 2008 considered the highest in the 21-year history of the index.

Home prices have dropped 32.2 percent since peaking in the second quarter of 2006 and are at levels not seen since the end of 2002.

The Case-Shiller 20-city index fell 18.7 percent in March year-over-year, also a record. It fell 18.5% during the last quarter of 2008. This index has plunged 32.2 percent from its July 2006 peak and has fallen for the 32nd straight month.

The Case-Shiller 10-city index dropped 18.6 percent. Those declines were at a slower pace. "Declines in residential real estate continued at a steady pace into March," according to David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's in a prepared statement. "All 20 metro areas are still showing negative annual rates of change in average home prices with nine of the metro areas having record annual declines."

There are no clear signs yet that home prices have reached the bottom.

Minneapolis recorded the largest monthly price loss of any metro area in the 20-city index in March, losing 6.1 percent compared with February. That is the biggest single-month dive for a city in index history.

Sun-Belt cities still had the largest year-over-year declines in March, with Phoenix, Vegas and San Francisco topping the list with prices down 36 percent, 31.2 percent and 30.1 percent respectively.

Also in the report, two cities have shown that prices have dropped more than 50 percent from their peak prices. They are Phoenix which is 53 percent off since June 2006 and Las Vegas down by 50.4 percent from its August 2006 high.