10.8 percent annual growth in San Diego home prices

San Diego County home values rose 10.8 percent in March compared to 12 months earlier, as a smaller number of buyers chased deals on the most expensive homes, according to the latest update of Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

For months, the momentum behind San Diego home prices has been a frenzied market of investors and first-time homebuyers looking to score a deal on a house.

But March saw that trend flipped on its head: Homes priced under $311,200 fell 0.5 percent, the first monthly drop since May, though still up 11.3 percent since the previous March. Meanwhile, homes prices above $465,686 rose 2.9 percent in March from February, and were up 7.7 percent from the previous year.

The index, a widely respected measure of the resale value of houses, shows that San Diego is still 36 percent off its November 2005 high.