The prices of Island homes that sold last month remain lower than 12 months ago, when the median price of homes sold on the Island regularly exceeded $1 million. The median price of single family homes declined by nearly 8 percent in October from one year ago, falling from $980,000 to $910,000 last month. However, it is a vast improvement over the median prices recorded earlier this year when they fell to 630,000 in March and to $387,$000 in February.

Last month’s listings of Island homes and condos for sale were down, and the number of home sales in progress was up slightly. For the month of October, the total number of Island homes and condos on the market was down by 20 percent from the same month a year ago, from 233 to 185, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. However, the number of sales pending as of Halloween was up by 100 percent from 15 to 30 homes in the process of selling. The number of closed or completed sales, reflecting sales set in motion from several weeks prior, was up from 22 homes and condos in October 2008 to 27 this past month. The median price of closed sales of both condos and single family was flat, just up by 3 percent.

The number of Island condos on the market in this past month was down to 24 from 44 for sale a year ago. Prices offered for condos and townhouses range from a high of $1 million to $249,000.

Just under 160 single-family homes are presently on the market on the Island. About one-third of those are priced between $1 and $2 million, and a quarter between $2 and $5 million.

Prices for the single-family homes range from $449,000 for a battered, two-bedroom wood-frame 1,300-square-foot home built in 1979 on Island Crest Way to $32 million for an uncompleted 14,000-square-foot waterfront mansion at West Mercer Way and Boulevard Place S.E.

For the most part, mortgage interest rates remain below 5 percent for conventional 30-year rates as of Monday, Nov. 9. Jumbo 30-year rates are between a half to a full point or more higher, according to the Web site, www.compareinterestrates.com.