New York City ? In another sign the housing crisis could be reaching the bottom, home prices dropped sharply in February but for the first time in 25 months the decline was not a record.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed home prices in 20 major cities tumbled by 18.6 percent from February 2008. That was slightly better than January’s 19 percent and the first time since January 2007 the index didn’t set a record.

“We’ve seen early signs of over the last couple of months of some stabilization, particularly in the markets that were hardest hit,” Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan said.