LI home prices continue downward slide

Long Island home prices continued their steady downward march last month.

Homes in Nassau County fetched a median price of $397,000 in April, a decline of 2 percent compared to the same period last year, the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island said in a report released Monday. The median is the midpoint in a series of numbers. The number of transactions was down by 2.3 percent, according to the listing service.

In Suffolk County, the median price of $285,000 was 1.4 percent lower than April 2011. The number of transactions was down by 3 percent.

Those numbers reflect sales that closed in April, and generally went into contract about two months before. Sales that went into contract in April reflect a somewhat stronger market. For contracts signed last month, Nassau County's median price of $395,000 marked a 0.8 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to the listing service. The number of pending sales in Nassau was up nearly 15 percent compared to the previous April.

In Suffolk County, the median price of sales that went into contract last month was $305,000, unchanged from the previous April. The number of pending sales was up nearly 21 percent compared to the previous April.