Akron-area real-estate sales — both the number of units and overall value — fell in May compared to previous years, according to the latest available sales data.

Sales for the first five months of 2008 are also down compared to similar periods going back to 2003.

The sales information shows:

• 358 homes were sold in May for a total value of $54 million, down 21.1 percent in value from $68.6 million in May 2007.

• Sales for the first five months of the year were 1,558 units, down 19.1 percent from 1,927 for the same period in 2007. Total value for the first five months of 2008 was $197.4 million, down 25.3 percent from $264.2 million for the first five months of 2007.

• The average length of time a home was on the market was 93 days in May, down from 99 days in April and 94 days in May 2007.

A bright spot: The average price for the 358 homes sold in May was $151,035, up substantially from $112,791 for 376 homes sold in April, according to information from the Akron Area Board of Realtors and National Association of Realtors. That was the highest monthly average sales price since $166,199 last August.

''It's definitely a buyer's market,'' said Susan O'Neal, president of the Akron Area Board of Realtors.

Overall housing prices in the Akron area are being hurt by the large number of repossessions caused by foreclosures, she said.

Sellers either must price their homes competitively from the start, or realize they must drop their prices to find a buyer, O'Neal said.

Even neighborhoods where there is a significant percentage of foreclosed and repossessed properties are seeing sales, she said.

''It's not like there's any neighborhood that's exempt from this,'' O'Neal said.

In her own real-estate practice, she brokered a sale recently that involved a Goodyear Heights homeowner buying a foreclosed property in good condition in that neighborhood, she said. The new owner planned to rent out the home, she said.

''The rental market has picked up because so many people have lost their homes,'' O'Neal said.

Some parts of Summit County are doing better than others, she said.

''Hudson is doing better this year than last,'' she said. ''Green is doing slightly less than last year.''

The real-estate firm Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer said last week that real-estate conditions in Northeast Ohio continue to be better than in other parts of the nation.

The firm reported that its monthly volume for April was up 21.5 percent over March.

Because real-estate prices in Ohio and elsewhere in the Midwest never rose as high as in coastal regions, they won't drop as much, said Hoby Hanna, president of the real-estate firm's Ohio subsidiary.

His firm's sales have also been helped by a decades-old company policy of buying back properties at their sales price for up to a year after the transaction if the new owner is dissatisfied with the home, Hanna said. In the current economic climate, the buy-back policy helps assure new buyers that they will not lose value in their new home the first year, he said.

''It helps us sell more homes,'' he said. ''It's a risk, as anything in life is.''

Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer said it has the financial strength to offer the buy-back guarantee. Under that policy, the company has bought back as many as 10 homes a year, Hanna said. It then resells the properties — often at a higher price, he said.