NORTH COUNTY -- North County single-family home prices held fast in January even as prices elsewhere in San Diego County declined 5 percent year over year.

In its monthly HomeDex report Friday, the North San Diego County Association of Realtors reported that houses selling in the area in January sold for a median price of $625,000, the same as in January 2006. Elsewhere, the median price slid from $543,000 a year ago to $516,900 last month.

At the same time, the amount paid for single-family homes dropped 12.3 percent from a year ago, reflecting the 6.7 percent drop in the number of homes sold.

Dan Maloney, a Vista real estate broker, said North County is probably holding up better than the rest of the county because it is one of the more desirable places in Southern California and people are still willing to pay a premium to live in the area.

"I think you get more bang for the buck up here. You get a better value in the homes up here," Maloney said.

Marc Zimmerman, a real estate agent in Encinitas, did not find it surprising that the area bucked the countywide trend.

"North County is sort of an anomaly within the San Diego market," Zimmerman said. "The appeal of North County is that there is still room to stretch out here. We haven't seen the explosive growth that Chula Vista, for example, has."

At the same time, sales of single-family homes continued a sluggish trend that began in late 2005. The North County sales total for January declined 8 percent year over year, to 490 houses from 533 in January 2006. Last month's total also was a 25 percent plunge from the total of 660 for December, the report showed.

When it came to the condominium and town-house sector, North County mirrored the county as a whole.

North County condos sold for a median price of $378,000 in January, a 6.7 percent drop from $405,000 one year ago. In other parts of the county, sales prices slid an average of 6 percent, to $356,700 last month from $380,000 in January 2006.

Maloney said the relative instability of North County town-house prices was a reflection of last year's influx of condo conversions, and comes down to simple supply and demand.

"There's just more to choose from, and lower prices are being offered," he said.

Condo sales, on the other hand, nearly matched the total from this time last year. Buyers closed deals on 208 condominiums in January after snatching up 211 a year earlier, for a decline of 1.4 percent, the report stated.

Sales are down in large part because "flippers" who were buying up homes left and right and selling them for profit are no longer making offers, Zimmerman said.

"A big portion of our market was investors, and investors are looking at other places than real estate to get a return on their investment now," he said.

In the single-family sector of the market, buyers invested a total of $386,836,520 in houses last month, representing a 12.3 percent decline in the amount of money changing hands year over year. In January 2006, $441,202,839 exchanged hands, the report showed.

As for the condos, sales totaled $86,513,107, down 6.2 percent from $92,211,437 from January 2006.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 740-5442 or ddowney@nctimes.com.