Home sales across Colorado were down 7.2 percent in October compared to the same month last year, while the statewide median home price lost 2.1 percent, according to statistics released by the Colorado Association of Realtors.

Realtors recorded 6,460 home sales in October, down from 6,953 a year earlier, while the median home price fell during the period from $243,627 to $238,511.

The most dramatic decline in sales activity occurred in Montrose, a western Colorado town, where sales plummeted 86 percent between October ‘05 and October ‘06 — from 488 to 70 — while the median sales price of a home sank 1.6 percent to $193,333.

Auburn Street’s stately homes, with pillared porches and manicured landscaping, may seem at first glance to have little in common with the narrow, closely-built single-family homes and duplexes of Perley Street. But both streets, like many others in Concord, have seen large increases in property values in the last five years. And, on both, homeowners expressed the same concern: How will they pay their tax bills if their property values continue to rise at the running pace?

The average assessed value of homes on Auburn Street increased more than 77 percent in five years, from $236,519 to $419,552. Perley Street saw a 110 percent increase, with the average home value rising from $125,300 to $263,965.