CAPITAL REGION — The greater Capital Region’s housing market lacked fireworks in July, posting its increasingly common slower home sales and steady values.

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 Monday 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 they “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 of last year. 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 price to $175,000 and $255,000. Schenectady County rebounded with a 6 percent increase in its July media 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 Monday by the National Association of Realtors.