The Maine Association of Realtors announced Thursday that sales of Maine real estate continued to drop in October, as did prices of single family homes, but experts say this is the time to buy.

Prices of single family, existing homes dipped a slight 1.99 percent, according to the Maine Real Estate Information System, Inc. The median sales price for a single-family existing home was $188,500 in October, down slightly from $192,250 one year ago. The median sales price indicates that half of the homes were sold for more and half sold for less.

The MREIS also reported 1,041 sales across Maine last month. This is down 12.23 percent from October 2006, when 1,186 sales took place statewide.

Tobin Malone, owner of WaterMark real estate agency in Rockport, said he sees an opportunity for qualified buyers to build equity.

“Anybody with a strong credit history who can put some cash together for a down payment should be buying real estate right now – land, rental income property, a larger or smaller or newer or second home, you name it,” Malone said.

Jeff Wooster of Lynam Real Estate Agency in Bar Harbor, said sellers are wondering what happened to the strong real estate market and why they can’t get what their neighbor got for their property two years ago.

“It’s market shock. We show them what their competition is, suggest pricing in the lower strata, and advise them to be ready to negotiate if they want to sell,” Wooster said.

Lingering effects of the credit crunch were a drag on sales but the mortgage situation has improved significantly, according to the National Association of Realtors.

NAR reported Thursday that national sales of single family, existing homes in October dropped 20.8 percent from last year. The national median existing single family home price decreased 6.3 percent in one year to $205,700.

In the Northeast region, October sales were down 12.6 percent from the same month last year. However, NAR said the regional median sales price rose 1.3 percent from October 2006 to October 2007 to $258,700.