Central Ohio home sales in October dropped to their lowest level in four years amid a massive supply of listings, which sent the average sales price down further, the Columbus Board of Realtors reported.

According to statistics, 1,982 homes were sold last month, down 9.7 percent from 2,196 a year earlier. Year to date, Central Ohio has recorded 22,672 sales, off last year’s pace by 3.7 percent.

The average price of a home sold in October sank 5.7 percent from a year ago to $166,266, and was down from $172,476 in September. Last month was the fifth straight month of price drops, falling from a high of $192,424 in June.

Wendy Brown, office leader for Prudential Pequot Properties in Westerly, R.I., uses the generic example of a man sitting at his computer in Nebraska at 2 a.m. looking for a house to describe the sometimes fickle nature of the Internet audience.

“If there is only one picture on the listing I probably am going to skip by it. If there are multiple pictures I’ll probably skip through it, then I’ll look for a virtual tour next. If (the listings) don’t have a virtual tour I’ll probably lose interest and move on to the next one,” she said.