South Florida’s single-family home prices have dropped again; home prices have posted modest increases during two past summers as government incentives pumped demand, but seem to have fallen still, according to the Miami Herald.

As this summer’s home closing period approaches for South Florida, home prices have dropped to five-year lows, according to March data released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller housing index.

Home prices slipped 0.8 percent between February and March. National home values, which also rallied during the summers of 2009 and 2010, also fell for the past eight months, sparking worries of a double-dip housing downturn.

“This month’s report is marked by the confirmation of a double-dip in home prices across much of the nation,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices, in a statement.

Home prices, which have fallen more than 50 percent since the 2006 peak, only rose about 2 percent during their brief brush with positive territory, data from Case-Shiller shows.

According to the Miami Herald, although home sales are declining to the double-digits, sales of homes and condos in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are on pace to have their best year since 2005. The sales surge has been led by condo sales from international buyers . Case-Shiller’s report does not factor in condos.

The number of for-sale homes is also down more than 20 percent in the last year. Nationally, inventory is up about 10 percent.