Home prices in major U.S. metropolitan areas showed a modest increase in the month of February, according to a report released by Standard & Poor's on Tuesday. The report showed that the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index edged up by 0.2 percent in February on a seasonally adjusted basis. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the index fell by 0.8 percent in February and was down by 3.5 percent compared to the same month a year ago. “While there might be pieces of good news in this report, such as some improvement in many annual rates of return, February 2012 data confirm that, broadly-speaking, home prices continued to decline in the early months of the year,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. “Nine MSAs -- Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Las Vegas, New York, Portland, Seattle and Tampa -- and both Composites hit new post-crisis lows. Atlanta continued its downward spiral, posting its lowest annual rate of decline in the 20-year history of the index at -17.3%. The 10-City Composite declined 3.6% and the 20-City was down 3.5% compared to February 2011.