An estimated 28,719 new and resale houses and condos sold statewide last month. That was down 0.5 percent from 28,871 in January, and down 3.1 percent from 29,630 sales in February 2012.

Sales are generally flat from January to February. February sales in California have varied from a low of 20,513 in 2008 to a high of 48,409 in 2004. Last month's sales were 9.9 percent below the average of 31,890 sales for all the months of February since 1988.