S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. Home-Price Index Falls 14.4% (Bob Willis)

 May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in March by the most in at least seven years, pointing to weakness in the housing market that will constrain economic growth.

The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index dropped 14.4 percent from a year earlier, more than forecast and the most since the figures were first published in 2001. The gauge has fallen every month since January 2007.

{xtypo_quote_left} The decline in housing prices is still accelerating and is going to overshoot on the downside the same way it overshot on the upside,'' billionaire investor George Soros told a conference at the London School of Economics last week. "We are not yet halfway in the decline in housing prices. {/xtypo_quote_left} 

Prices continue to slide as record foreclosures put more homes on the market and stricter lending standards make it harder to get loans. Falling home values are slowing consumer spending, threatening to halt the six-year expansion.

``Many households are putting their home-buying plans on hold, given the expectations that the house price corrections will persist,'' Celia Chen, an economist at Moody's Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. ``The housing downturn remains in full swing.''

Prices dropped 2.2 percent in March from a month earlier, after a 2.6 percent decline in February, the report showed. The figures aren't adjusted for seasonal effects, so economists prefer to focus on year-over-year changes instead of month-to- month variations.

Read More: Bloomberg