Santa Fe’s big summer tourist season was not enough to rescue the real-estate market, which has continued to slow, according to new statistics.

Single-family home sales from June 1 through Labor Day were down 22.3 percent compared to the same time last year, according to information from Jonnalyn Grover, a real-estate agent with Coldwell Banker Trails West Realty. She used the Multiple Listing Service to produce the numbers.

This year, 384 single-family homes sold in the Santa Fe area between June 1 and Sept. 3, while 494 sold during the same time period last year. This year’s median price was $425,000, compared to $395,000 last year, Grover said.

The increase in the median price reflects the fact the area’s more expensive homes are selling better than the less expensive homes — not that overall prices are increasing, Grover said. The median price marks the point at which half the homes sold cost more and half of the homes cost less.

The numbers show a slowdown in Santa Fe’s real-estate market has continued. In the second quarter of this year, home sales decreased 26 percent compared to the same time last year, according to statistics the Santa Fe Association of Realtors released in July. The median price for combined city and county sales increased 7.6 percent to $450,000.

Traditionally, summer is a popular time of the year to buy a home because parents don’t want their children to start at a new school in the middle of the year. Also, the weather is better so it is easier to look at houses and move.

Ed Grabowski, a Santa Fe real-estate broker who has three properties advertised for sale, said he thinks Santa Fe’s prices are dropping a little, but not as much as they are throughout the country as a whole.

Grabowski said he thinks many people selling less expensive houses are unrealistic about what they can get. “We have a lot of inventory right now, and people can’t just ask what they’re asking and expect to get results,” he said.

Grover said the average number of days a single-family home was on the market during the summer of 2006 was 130 days while this year it was 138 days. There are 1,636 active listings for single-family homes in the Santa Fe area, she said.

Using an average of 128 homes sold a month this summer, more than one year’s worth of inventory is on Santa Fe’s real-estate market. The amount of time it will take to sell the present inventory is likely even higher because sales are usually strongest during the summer. Realtors typically say that having more than six month’s worth of inventory on the market is a sign of a buyer’s market.

Grover’s numbers include sales in the city of Santa Fe, Pojoaque, Madrid, Cerrillos, Rancho Viejo, Eldorado, the N.M. 599 area, the Lamy area and the Galisteo area.

One advertisement in The New Mexican for a house priced at $239,000 says the home is at the same price it was in April before the owner remodeled it. The owner didn’t return a phone call requesting comment.

Grover said there is a perception it is more difficult to get loans for homes under $350,000, but that is not the case. The loans are still available, she said, but they often require more documentation than in the past.

Chuck Dupuis, who is trying to sell a home he bought as an investment in Casa Solana, said he was planning on asking $400,000 for the home, but decided on $375,000 after he went to a few open houses in the subdivision and saw what other people were asking.

The home has been on the market for six weeks, Dupuis said, and so far no one has made an offer.

But Dupuis said his price is firm. “I’m one of these people who will not cave in,” he said.

Contact Wendy Brown at 986-3072 or wbrown@sfnewmexican.com.

• 26: Percent decrease in home sales for the year’s second quarter compared to last year
• 7.6: Percent increase of the median price for combined city and county sales
• 128: Average number of homes sold a month this summer
• 1,636: Number of active listings for single-family homes in the Santa Fe area