Home sales in the San Francisco Bay area fell 14.3 percent in August from July as buyers found fewer bargains due to a slimmer inventory of foreclosed properties, MDA DataQuick said on Thursday.

A thinner inventory of distressed properties for sale, hence fewer 'bargains,' helps explain the relatively sharp drop in sales between July and August. The number of foreclosed properties that resold in August fell 15.2 percent from July, the real estate information company said in a report.

But the nine-county market in August posted 12 straight months of rising home sales on a year-over-year basis.

Last month's 7,518 sales of new and resale houses and condominiums marked a 4.0 percent increase from a year earlier, according to MDA DataQuick.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condominiums in the region last month fell to $360,000, down 8.9 percent from July and 19.5 percent a year earlier.

At $360,000 the region's median was at its second-highest level for any month since last October, when it stood at $375,000, and 45.9 percent below a July 2007 peak of $665,000.

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