Massachusetts home prices continued to decline in April, although some Attleboro area communities actually saw increases in median sales prices, compared with the same period last year.

The Warren Group reported Tuesday that the median price of a single-family home fell 12 percent statewide to $305,000. That's the biggest such decline since the Boston-based real estate data publisher began recording prices in 1987.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported that prices fell 8.7 percent statewide. The Realtors' group reported a less precipitous fall, but doesn't count some transactions, such as for-sale-by-owner, that the Warren Group does.

The Warren Group also said the number of home sales also declined 12 percent in April, but it was the smallest such decline in eight months. The Realtors association reported almost a 16 percent drop in the volume of home sales.

Attleboro and North Attleboro continued to post sharp declines in home prices, with the median price falling from $291,500 to $253,500 in Attleboro and from $310,000 to $272,000 in North Attleboro. Other communities, such as Norfolk and Mansfield, actually saw higher median sales prices from one year to the next.

The number of home sales locally declined in all area communities except Norfolk and Norton, where the number of sales during April doubled from seven to 14.

"Despite the fact that sales of single-family homes were down in April compared to last year, there were still some small but positive signs," said MAR President Susan Renfrew, co-owner of Renfrew Real Estate in Greenfield. "The monthly decline was not as great as in each of the first three months of the year, while on a month-to-month basis, sales experienced significant increases and stabilizing prices.

"While we'll need to see how the numbers are next month, this at least indicates that the spring selling season is picking up," she said.

Statewide, there were 2,803 detached single-family homes sold in April, a 15.8 percent decrease from the 3,328 homes sold the same time last year, the Realtors' association said.

On a month-to-month basis, there was a 19.8 percent increase compared to the 2,339 homes sold this past March, the third biggest March-to-April increase in the past 10 years.