BOSTON – Single-family home sales in Rhode Island last month fell 16.7 percent year-over-year to the slowest August sales pace of the past 15 years, Boston-based real estate tracker The Warren Group reported today.

Statewide, 644 houses sold in Rhode Island this August, down from 773 in the same month of 2007. Year-to-date sales were down 14.7 percent, with 4,725 houses sold in the Ocean State during the first eight months of the year compared with 5,541 homes sold in the year-ago period.

“Home sales will continue to be sluggish this year because of the credit crisis,” CEO Timothy Warren Jr. said in a statement. “That will certainly continue to be a drag on prices as home sellers reduce their asking prices to try to draw in buyers and move their properties.

“Prices in Rhode Island have declined by double-digit percentages every month this year, with the exception of February,” Warren added. And this August was the state’s third consecutive month of greater-than-10-percent price declines, his company said.

The median price of houses sold in Rhode Island in August fell 15.4 percent, to $232,653 last month – the lowest August price of the past six years – from $275,000 a year ago. The year-to-date median home price was down 11.1 percent, from $270,000 last year to $240,000 for the first eight months of 2008, The Warren Group said.

Meanwhile, condominium sales in the state fell 30.1 percent, to 158 sales last month from 226 the previous August. The median price of condos sold in Rhode Island dropped 3.9 percent, to $220,000 from the year-ago $229,000.

The declines were even sharper in nearby Bristol County, Mass.

There, 291 single-family homes sold this August amounted to a 20.49-percent decline from the 366 sold in the same month of 2007. The median price of Bristol County houses sold in August fell 13.56 percent, to $255,000 last month from $295,000 a year ago.

Condo sales in Bristol County also fell more sharply than in the Ocean State. They were down 37.5 percent, to 65 last month from 104 sales in August 2007. The median price of condos sold in the county fell only 2.46 percent, however, to $216,500 last month from $221,950 a year earlier.

The Warren Group Inc. is a provider of New England real estate data and the publisher of Banker & Tradesman and other journals. Additional information is available at www.thewarrengroup.com.