SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) -- Home sales kept plunging in California last month, but foreclosures made up a smaller segment of the market, a tracking firm said Monday.

An estimated 35,202 new and existing houses and condominiums were sold statewide last month, which was down 3.3 percent from March, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.

The sales figure was down 6.1 percent from April of last year.

The median price for a home in the state was $249,000, unchanged from March but down 2.4 percent from April 2010. It marked the seventh straight month that prices slipped from year-earlier levels.

By comparison, the median price peaked at $484,000 in early 2007.

"Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions," said a DataQuick statement. "Foreclosure activity has declined somewhat but remains high by historical standards."

More than half of the existing homes sold came from distressed property sales but the percentage of foreclosed properties dipped to 36.6 percent.

Short-sale transactions, in which lenders allow distressed homes to be sold for less than what is owed on them, accounted for 17.6 percent of existing home sales. That was up from 17.2 percent in March but down from 17.7 percent a year earlier.

The typical mortgage payment was $1,050, DataQuick said.

Homes sales in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area fell to a three-year low in April and the median price continued to plummet.

DataQuick said 6,789 homes were sold, down 3.7 percent from March and 3.l percent from April of last year. Usually, the region's sales rise between March and April.

The median price was $360,000, unchanged from March but down 2.7 percent from April 2010.

Southern California home sales also plunged to their lowest level in three years. Sales dropped 5.5 percent from March to 18,344. That was down 9.2 percent from April 2010.

The median sales price in the six-county region was $280,000, down 0.2 percent from March and 1.8 percent from a year ago.

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