HOME prices have fallen in 23 United States metropolitan areas in March, led by Sacramento and San Diego.

It is a sure sign that rising foreclosures are prolonging the housing recession, Bloomberg News reported.

The price per square foot in Sacramento, California's capital, dropped 31 percent to US$160 from a year earlier, according to a report released on Monday by New York-based Radar Logic Inc, a real estate data company.

Prices in San Diego declined 27 percent to US$251 a square foot. New York area prices fell compared with a year earlier for the first time since Radar Logic began publishing in 2000, the report said.

Foreclosure filings surged 65 percent and bank seizures more than doubled in April compared with a year earlier as rates on adjustable mortgages increased, according to RealtyTrac Inc. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index dropped 14.4 percent in March from a year earlier, the most since the figures were first published in 2001.

The report shows "weakness compared to last year in almost all markets," Radar Logic said. Prices in Phoenix and San Francisco "continued to experience negative pressure" as financial institutions, foreclosure service firms and foreclosure auction houses sold homes.

More than 243,300 properties were in some stage of foreclosure in April, the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac Inc, a California-based seller of default data, began in January 2005. One in every 519 households received a filing, and Nevada, California and Florida had the highest rates.

California, Nevada and Florida accounted for 9 of the 25 cities measured by Radar Logic in its monthly report.

California home prices tumbled 32 percent in April from a year earlier as "distressed" properties and a lack of financing cut demand, the state realtors group said.

The median existing home price fell to US$403,870, according to the California Association of Realtors.