San Diego home prices increased 1.3 percent between February and March, according to the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released this week.
The S&P report showed that, in the year since March 2013, the costs of housing in San Diego rose 18.9 percent. Nationwide, however, the pace of price increases has slowed some when compared on an annual basis.
The indices were created by taking the housing prices in 20 major U.S. cities in January 2000, assigning them a value of 100, and tracking the subsequent rise and fall.
San Diego's index stood at 199.6 in March, representing a near doubling of home values over 15 years despite the housing crash of the last decade. The local increase is topped only by Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., according to the data.
The 20-city index was 166.8, up 0.9 percent in March and 12.4 percent for the year. A 10-city index was at 181.43, which was 0.8 percent higher for the month and 12.6 percent for the year.
"The year-over-year changes suggest that prices are rising more slowly," said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Annual price increases for the two composites have slowed in the last four months and 13 cities saw annual price changes moderate in March. The National Index also showed decelerating gains in the last quarter."
Only Detroit, at 93.97, remains under the starting point of 100, according to S&P. Even there, prices were 15.7 percent higher in March than in the same month of last year.
