Home prices continue their slide in Modesto, Stanislaus County

MODESTO -- Housing prices in February continued their slide, dropping 10.7 percent in Stanislaus County from a year ago.

According to real estate research company DataQuick, the median home price in the county last month was $125,000, down $2,000 from January and $15,000 since February 2010.

Median home prices in the county had been hovering around $140,000 for several months in 2010, giving some experts hope the market had finally bottomed after the real estate bubble burst in late 2005. But Thursday’s figures are new lows.

Despite the drop in prices, home sales for Stanislaus County were up 8.2 percent in February from a year ago. But they were down 5.8 percent in San Joaquin County for the same period.

John Walsh, DataQuick’s president, cautioned about reading too much into the winter figures, pointing out that the real estate market tends to heat up in the spring.