SOUTH PORTLAND – Fewer homes sold in Maine last month and for less money than in August 2007, according to the Maine Association of Realtors.

The median home sales price in Maine dropped by 7.69 percent in August and sales were down by nearly 33 percent in the last year, Maine Real Estate Information System Inc. reported. That’s double the decline of the overall Northeast region.

In the three-month period ending Aug. 31, Lincoln, Knox and Oxford counties saw the most extreme decline in sales over the same period a year before. Washington County, in contrast, posted a nearly 42 percent sales increase over the same period. Somerset County also jumped 5 percent in sales.

Penobscot County posted a nearly 30 percent decline, from 478 units sold from June through August 2007 to 335 units sold during the same period this year.

“Foremost in the seller’s head should be, for what price will it sell?” said Jim Fitzgerald of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Kennebunk. “And should we put it on the market for a little less than that?”