EL PASO -- Here's a statistic that says a lot about how real estate markets have changed.

El Paso now has virtually the same median, or market midpoint, price for used single-family homes as the Phoenix area.

El Paso's median sales price was $131,800 in the second quarter, while the Phoenix area's median sales price was $131,100, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors.

The median sales price of a used single-family home in El Paso declined 4.3 percent in the April through June quarter compared to a year ago. The median price in the once sizzling Phoenix area real estate market declined 36.1 percent.

A year ago, the median sales price of an El Paso home was $137,700, while Phoenix's median sales price a year ago was $205,100.

"The Phoenix market has really fallen. ... It probably inflated a lot faster than it should have, and that economy is probably in worse shape than ours," said Dan Olivas, an El Paso Realtor and past president of the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors. "What it says about our (real estate market and economy) is it's pretty stable."

Charles de Wetter, president of Coldwell Banker de Wetter Hovious, one of El Paso's largest real estate companies, said El Paso has a much more stable real estate market than in Phoenix and some other formerly high-flying markets.

"I think our market is doing very well compared to most places, and (it) continues to putter along," de Wetter said.

Home prices fell in 129 of 155 metro areas surveyed by the National Association of Realtors in the second quarter.

Nationally the median home sales price declined 15.6 percent from a year ago to $174,100.

The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., area had the steepest price decline, as home prices fell almost 53 percent in the second quarter compared with a year ago to $84,000. The largest price increase was in the Davenport, Iowa-Rock Island, Ill., area, where home prices increased almost 31 percent from a year ago to $113,200, the Realtors association reported.

Kerran Fowlkes, 26, a credit analyst for an El Paso bank, said the decline in prices helped him in his search for his first home purchase. He's in the process of buying a used, three-bedroom home on the West Side for $119,000 -- $11,000 less than the home's original sales price --Êhe said.

The problem, Fowlkes said, is that West Side homes in his price range, $125,000 and less, are hard to find.

"It's really hard to find affordable housing on the West Side," he said.

De Wetter said the most popular El Paso homes are in the "lower price ranges" because an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time buyers has helped that market segment.

Olivas, who owns the Dan Olivas and Associates real estate firm, said the national recession has played a part in El Paso's price decline. But Fort Bliss growth and other factors should prevent El Paso home prices from falling much further, he said.

Home prices should begin to stabilize later this year, and start going up again next year, Olivas said.

De Wetter said he sees El Paso home prices "rebounding to previous levels in 2010."

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.

For more information: www.realtor.org.