Home prices in Washington slipped three percent in the first quarter compared with 2009, helping affordability remain at the highest levels in more than a decade.

The Washington Center for Real Estate Research also found median prices in Spokane County were off 5.6 percent, to $170,200, but the number of sales jumped 27 percent from depressed 2009 levels.

The median for all of Washington was $245,900.

Locally and statewide, sales volume trailed off slightly compared with the fourth quarter of 2009.

Center Director Glenn Crellin said the impact of the income tax credit was difficult to gauge, but the activity was slower during the extension that ended April 30 than it was before the first deadline expired Nov. 30.

Affordability, measured using prices, interest rates and incomes, edged down from fourth-quarter 2009, but remained at the best levels since at least the late 1990s.

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