April was a good month for home sales in Sacramento and its surrounding areas. More homes sold in April than in any month since last July. According to DataQuick Information Systems, a national data repository containing data on more than 87 million properties, 3,163 homes closed in escrow in April. That’s a 26 percent jump from the same time last year. DataQuick’s Andrew LePage says foreclosure sales boosted the market. He calls it “the blue light special effect.” "In Sacramento County, almost 60 percent of the homes that resold had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months," said LePage. But he also says one month does not make a trend and it’s premature to say whether April’s figures mark a turnaround in the weak housing market. Prices continued to fall sharply last month. April's median home price of 232 thousand was down 32 percent from the same period last year. The number of California homes going into foreclosure jumped last quarter to its highest level in more than 15 years, as the market continued to work its way through declining home values and a pool of at-risk mortgages that were originated in 2005 and 2006.