(Crain’s) — Year-over-year Chicago-area home sales fell 8.8% in February, as the local market continues to struggle.

In the nine-county Chicago region, 3,769 single-family homes and condominiums sold last month, compared with 4,134 in February 2010, the Illinois Assn. of Realtors said in a release Monday.

In the city of Chicago, sales declined 13.8% to 1,056 vs. 1,225 in February 2010.

The association downplayed the declines by noting that sales in the early part of 2010 were helped by federal tax credits for homebuyers.

Nothing is aiding today’s market, though the association hopes winter’s thaw and a slowly recovering economy will provide a lift.

“More encouraging jobs signals and warmer weather should bring qualified buyers out from hibernation to grab hold of the low interest rates and high affordability factors in place for the spring market,” association President Sheryl Grider Whitehurst, development and operations coordinator for Peoria-based Traders Realty, said in the release.

The Chicago area’s median price — at which half the homes sell for more and half for less — dropped 7.6% last month to $152,500, compared to $165,000 in February 2010, according to the association.

The median price in the city of Chicago increased 0.6% to $177,500, compared to $176,500 in February 2010, the Realtors said.

The sales figures include new and existing homes. The nine-county Chicago area consists of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.