The Capital Region’s housing market continued its increasingly common trend of slower home sales and steady values in July.

Closed single-family home sales regionwide continued at a lethargic pace last month, declining 20 percent to 801 from 996 a year earlier. Refusing to give ground, the region’s median sale price over the year rose 2 percent to $210,000, according to statistics released today by the Greater Capital Association of Realtors.

GCAR officials viewed the lackluster statistics for July — traditionally a hot sales month for the market — without surprise. GCAR Chief Executive Officer James Ader said the numbers “certainly reflect what we all feel - a slower than usual market.”

For the first seven months of 2008, sales totaled 4,639, down 16 percent from the same period in 2007. During the same period, the region’s median sale price rose 1 percent to $193,600.

A tug-and-pull over home values continued to play out throughout the region. Five percent pricing corrections hit both Rensselaer and Saratoga counties, sending their median sale prices to $175,000 and $255,000, respectively. Schenectady County rebounded with a 6 percent increase in its July median sale price after posting a 6 percent decline a month earlier.

Nationwide, single-family home sales in July totaled 4.39 million, down 12.4 percent from a year earlier. During the same period, the nation’s median sale price dropped 7.7 percent to $210,900, according to statistics also released today by the National Association of Realtors.