Hoping that the housing market would hit the accelerator to mark the start of the spring selling season? It was not to be. Home sales in the Baltimore metro area continued to drop precipitously last month vs. a year earlier, according to numbers released today by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems.

Sales fell 34 percent. That's the seventh straight month of declines at or above 30 percent.

Average home prices fell almost 3 percent in the metro area, though there was quite a range at a local level. Prices were down about 1 percent in Anne Arundel, 3 percent in Harford, 4 percent in Baltimore County, 8 percent in Howard and 20 percent in Carroll. Baltimore City posted a gain of almost 2 percent.

But the city's sales, like Howard's, were down 44 percent. Drops elsewhere in the region were not that steep.

I'll have more details in tomorrow's story. In the meantime, click HERE if you'd like to see the new statistics.