Home prices in the Washington area climbed during the first three months of the year, the only area in the country to post an average increase during the first quarter. Meanwhile, the rest of the nation’s major markets continued their decline as prices regressed to late 2009 levels on average, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released Tuesday.

The region’s continued recovery in the face of a national double dip is largely because Washington got a head start in recovering from the recession, said John McClain, deputy director of the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis.