Existing home sales plunge 16% in September

SOUTH PORTLAND – Sales of existing homes in Maine plunged 16 percent in September, and the median sales price fell 1 percent.

Real estate agents sold 1,028 single-family homes in September, down from 1,225 a year ago, the Maine Association of Realtors said Wednesday. The median sales price fell to $190,000.

The decline in Maine followed two months of increases in home sales and prices.

Nationwide, sales of existing homes fell 19 percent in September from the same month a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. The median home price fell to $211,700 in September, down by 4.2 percent from a year earlier.

In the Northeast, September home sales fell 13.5 percent from the same month in 2006, while the median sales price rose 0.5 percent.

The sales figures for the three-month period from July through September were better in Maine than the September numbers alone.

For the three-month period, home sales fell by 1.5 percent while the median sales price rose 1.5 percent.

The No. 1 county, Cumberland, saw home sales grow by nearly 8 percent for the period. But sales were essentially flat in York County, while falling by 5 percent in Penobscot County and by 9.2 percent in Kennebec County.