Home prices fall below $300,000 mark

Hopes that 2008 will bring a rebound in the Bay State’s battered real estate market are fading, with new numbers showing another big drop in home sales and prices.

Massachusetts single-family home sales plunged last month by 17.1 percent, the Warren Group reported.

And median home prices also fell beneath the $300,000 mark for the first time since March 2004. The state’s median home price in October was $290,000, a 6.5 percent decrease.