However you slice it, the latest news may be good for potential home buyers, but not for builders and others linked to the housing industry. New home sales in April were 25% less than a year earlier. That silver lining is that home sales statewide were down 40%, so it could have been worse. In fact, in Fairfield and Modesto, sales were off 50%. As for prices, the median home price in the region dropped nearly 11% … down from $458,000 in April of ’06 to $410,000 this April – a dip of $48,000. That decline is twice as steep as the statewide slide of just 6%..