Metro-area home prices reached another milestone in April 2014,

hitting an all-time high on a closely watched index of nationwide home prices.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices report released Tuesday showed that Denver’s home price index level was 150.59, which means home prices in April were, on average, 50.59 percent higher than in January 2000, the benchmark month.

The S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices noted that Denver and Dallas gained 1.6 percent month-over-month and continue to set new peaks.

Home prices in the metro area were up 8.9 percent from April 2013 and increased 1.6 percent from March to April.

By comparison, Dallas saw a jump in prices of 9.3 percent from April 2013 to April 2014.

Denver started hitting new peaks in May 2013, when the price index level was 140.98, the highest since August 2006, when it was 140.28.

The Case-Shiller Index, which tracks the prices only of single-family homes, is one of the most widely cited monitors of changes in home prices in 20 major U.S. metro markets. Case-Shiller defines the Denver area as Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin, Jefferson and Park counties.

Index managing director David Blitzer told The Denver Post that Denver and Dallas, with energy at the core of their economies, escaped the worst of the recent recession, weathering only ”

relatively modest booms and busts in the 2003-2010 time frame.”

Gary Horvath, a Broomfield economist, said last week that currently Colorado’s inflation rate is 2.8 percent, nearly double the 1.5 percent for the nation.

Blitzer said housing prices typically rise at at the rate of inflation plus a percentage point or two, mirroring rising construction costs.

If for-sale inventory is low, housing prices can take off, he said.

“Then the question has nothing to do with construction costs,” Blitzer said. “It has completely to do with how much people will pay.”

Blitzer said that he doesn’t believe the Denver index — which is up from 146.21 in January — will head down anytime soon.

“I haven’t heard anything that says home prices in Denver are about to collapse,” he said.

“You don’t have to rush to sell this week.”

Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939, hpankratz@denverpost.com or twitter.com/howardpankratz