US home prices in 20 major cities dropped at record monthly and annual pace in January, according to data released Tuesday.

The S&P Case-Shiller index of home prices covers 20 major cities where a comparison of price changes recorded when homes are resold. Prices fell 2.8 percent from December and 19 percent from last year’s reading. It was the sharpest drop since the index was established in 2000.

The 10-city index sank 19.4 percent which is also a new record. The index considered an accurate measure of market trends has been on the decline for 30 straight months. The pace of decline continues to accelerate were only a few metro areas shows slow down.

All 20 metro areas covered by the report displayed monthly and annual price declines where 14 cities suffered more than 10 percent drop while 13 areas posted new annual records.Dallas, Denver and Cleveland fared better with annual price declines of around 5 percent. Dallas with a loss of 4.9 percent, Denver and Cleveland with 5.1 percent 5.2 percent drops respectively.

Six cities, namely, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Seattle and New York, showed smaller monthly price declines in January compared with December.

Nationally, prices have dropped 29.1 percent since the index peaked during the second quarter of 2006.

Individually, Phoenix home prices have dropped 35% year-over-year, while Las Vegas home prices fell 32.5 percent, San Francisco by 32.4 percent and Miami by 29.4 percent.

Phoenix home prices has plunged 48.5 percent from its peak, the highest in all of the metro areas covered by the index. Other big losers were Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco and San Diego where home prices dropped more than 40 percent from their peaks.