Sacramento-area home sales tailed off slightly in August from their July highs, while median prices in Sacramento County, the largest sector of the region's real estate market, held steady at $210,000.

Though only one month's worth of data, it show the first time since May 2007 that median prices in Sacramento County have not fallen from the previous month.

El Dorado County sales prices also remained the same as July. Prices rose slightly in Yolo County.

Altogether, 3,998 new and existing homes closed escrow in August in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, MDA DataQuick reported today. That was down from 4,126 closings the previous month.

Sales numbers rose from July levels in El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties. They fell in Amador, Nevada, Sacramento, Sutter and Yuba counties.

The recent increase in home sales is largely due to people buying lower-priced homes that banks have taken back from borrowers unable to pay their mortgages.

Highlights from the MDA DataQuick numbers for new and existing homes combined include:

• Sacramento County's $210,000 median sales price -- where half sold for more and half for less -- is down 32.7 percent from the same time last year, and off 45.7 percent from the county's August 2005 high of $387,000.

• El Dorado County's $390,000 August sales price is down 14.3 percent from August 2007. It is 26.6 percent below its March 2006 peak of $531,000.

• Placer County's $330,000 median sales price is down 23.4 percent from the same time last year. It is 32.7 percent off its December 2005 high of $525,000.

• Yolo County's August median of $312,250 is down 19.6 percent from August last year. It's also 34.1 percent off its November 2005 high of $474,000.

• Sutter County's August median, $190,000, is down 30.9 percent from the same time last year, and 44 percent off a December 2005 peak of $339,000.

• Yuba County's $178,000 August median price is down 35 percent from the same month last year. It also is the capital region's biggest plunge during the housing downturn, off 49.4 percent from a November 2005 high of $351,500.

• Amador County's August median, $260,000, is down 20.7 percent from last year, and 38.8 percent off a high of $425,000 in May 2006.

• Nevada County's $407,000 median in August is down just 2.4 percent from the same time last year. But it is down 18.8 percent from a high of $501,000 in October 2005.

August buyers in Sacramento County included Travis Watson, 25, who closed escrow on a $181,000 bank repossessed home in Galt.

"We got outbid on two other houses, but we got lucky with this house," he said. Watson, married with two children, said he financed the house with a 30-year fixed loan.

The August numbers add fresh perspective on this year's rebound summer. Year-over-year sales finally stopped declining in 2008 and consistently exceeded last year's tallies. In all, this year's April through August season provided 3,558 more sales than the same months last year.

Altogether, 18,745 homes have changed hands this year in the eight-county region from April through August, according to DataQuick. The same months of 2007 showed 15,187 sales.

This year's spring and summer sales season also came within shouting distance of the same months during 2006. Sales were about 800 shy of the same months in 2006, DataQuick reported.

The inventory of homes for sale in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties also continued to fall, dipping to 11,369, according to TrendGraphix, a Sacramento researcher affiliated with Lyon Real Estate. That's the lowest number of homes for sale in the region since early 2007.

The Sacramento Association of Realtors said 42 percent of the escrow closings in Sacramento County and the city of West Sacramento were priced below $200,000. It said two-thirds of the month's sales were bank repossessed homes.

The Placer County Association of Realtors reported that 7 percent of its sales were below $200,000.

Call The Bee's Jim Wasserman, (916) 321-1102. Read more in his real estate blog Home Front.