Home sales in the Twin Cities metro area continue to slide compared with last year, but they're holding their own compared with 2008. During September sales were down 33.5 percent compared with the same time last year, while the median sale price of these deals was down just 2.4 percent from last year, according to data released this morning by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.

The decline in sales wasn't unexpected, nor was the drop in sale prices. Last year at this time home sales were buoyed by the home buyer's tax credit, which expired at the end of April and caused an unusual spike in sales activity. So far this year sales are down considerably compared with last year, but are down only 1.4 percent compared with the first nine months of 2008.

The median sale price, an aggregate of all deals that closed during September, fell for the second month in a row despite a healthy gain in the sale prices of traditional deals, meaning those that weren't bank-owned or shor sales. Those non-bank facilitated deals rose 7.6 percent to $215,250 largely on an increase in sales of upper-bracket houses, but sale prices on both foreclosures ($114,900) and short sales ($143,000) have continued to fall as banks worked to reduce the glut of unsold homes.

There was good news for buyers: The number of houses for sale during the month, including new listings was up 30 percent though the number of new listings was down 10.7 percent.