If September was worrying for Fraser Valley realtors, October saw them breathing a sigh of relief.

Home sales are still down from their highs, but they bounced back from the sharp declines at the end of the summer.

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board released numbers this week showing sales were down eight per cent in October, compared to the same month in 2011.

However, that's a 23 per cent increase over September's sales.

"This is a marked improvement over September," said Scott Olson, president of the FVREB. "Our sales increased at the same time as our inventory dropped improving our supply-demand conditions."

Across the region - from North Delta to Abbotsford and Mission - sales dipped 7.3 per cent for detached houses, 4.6 per cent for townhouses, and 16.7 per cent for condos between October this year and October in 2011.

While the FVREB showed some increases in the prices for a "benchmark" home, average prices slid 3.2 per cent in a month, and were 0.8 per cent lower than a year ago.

Year to date sales are down by nine per cent.

In Langley, the situation was different, with the average prices of houses holding steady or increasing month-to-month, while the average prices of apartments and townhouses slid in year-to-year calculations.

The average price for a house in Langley last month was $559,141, down 0.3 per cent over a year, but up 5.4 per cent from a month before.

Townhouse averages slipped to $431,357, down 7.8 per cent over the year, with almost all of that decline in the last month.

Condo prices slid 6.2 per cent year-over-year to $212,158, but remained 3.9 per cent above September's prices.

The culprit for the declines in sales, especially in September, may be the changes to mortgage rules introduced by the federal government in July.

Those rules essentially banned most homeowners from taking out mortgages longer than 25 years, which increased the average monthly payment needed to buy a home.

Vancouver and other markets across the country have also seen some slowdown in sales as a result of the changes.