Those Case-Shiller numbers keep looking better for South Florida.

The Herald’s real estate reporter, Martha Brannigan, has the news on the latest report from the closely watched housing index. During the downturn, Case-Shiller became the most popular barometer for charting the housing depression.

Miami’s Case-Shiller numbers consistently looked gloomy. Case-Shiller showed the Miami metropolitan area — including Broward and Palm Beach counties — saw housing values drop 51 percent.

But recent numbers seem to confirm a positive trend. March saw a 2.5 percent gain over the prior year’s reading in South Florida, the bigget year-over-year gain since February 2007.

March also marked the third month that Case-Shiller showed back-to-back monthly gains in South Florida. The last time that happened was September 2009, during a brief respite from a five-year decline in property values that began in early 2007. This time, the trend looks more promising. We’ll see next month if South Florida can extend the winning streak.

The Miami Herald’s Economic Time Machine tracks 60 local indicators in an effort to chart South Florida’s recovery from the Great Recession. By comparing current conditions to where they were before the downturn, the ETM attempts to measure how far back the recession set the economy. The answer so far: September 2002. Visit ETM headquarters at miamiherald.com/economic-time-machine for the latest updates.