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The number of homes sold and the median prices in the Tucson area dropped in May, according to a monthly report published by a local housing consultant.

The Southern Arizona Housing Market Letter, released Monday by John Strobeck of Bright Future Business Consultants, showed new home and resale home closings were both down about 22 percent compared with the same month a year ago.

The median prices also fell 6.7 percent for new homes and by less than 1 percent for resold home in May compared to May 2006, according to the report.

Strobeck said May was "actually a good month," adding that sales are "staying pretty steady" as opposed to a more dramatic slowdown.

"I'm very glad to see it staying at a reasonable level," he said.

He anticipates that prices and sales will start to increase again sometime between the end of this year and the summer of 2008, "Although I get a little more pessimistic each month," he added.

In the past month, there were 588 new home closings and 1,536 resale home closings. The median price for a new home was $249,526 and the median price for a resold home was $214,000, according to Strobeck.

Permits for single-family homes dropped to the lowest level for May since 2001, according to the report. Last month, there were 602 permits pulled, down more than 40 percent from 1,032 in the same month last year. There were 534 permits in May 2001.

Strobeck said May's permit numbers were relatively strong, given that the monthly number of permits has dropped as low as 328 within the past year.