February home sales in Los Angeles dropped 9.2 percent from a year earlier and 5.3 percent from January, providing further evidence that hot real estate market is continuing to slow down.

Home sales in Los Angeles County in February totaled 6,405 compared with the year-earlier period’s 7,056 and the median price rose 15.6 percent to $490,000 from February 2005’s $424,000, La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems said.

In January, the price was $487,000 and sales were 6,761. February’s results were off a slight 0.6 percent off last month’s median price.

But a decline from January to February is normal for the season, DataQuick said.

A total of 19,905 homes were sold in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. That was down 0.9 percent from 20,085 in January and 7 percent from 21,394 a year earlier.

In Southern California, the median price paid for a home last month was $480,000, up 2.3 percent from $469,000 in January and up 12.9 percent from $425,000 in February a year earlier.

“The frenzy is behind us. We’re in a new phase of the real estate cycle and what remains to be seen is how this cycle’s end game will play out. We’ll know much more when next month’s figures are in,” said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president, in a statement.