SAN DIEGO -- Home sales surged 22 percent in Southern California in April compared to March, as bargain-hunters bought lower-end homes in areas hardest hit by foreclosures, a research firm said Monday.

Still, sales were down 19 percent from April 2007, marking the weakest April tally since 1995, DataQuick Information Systems said.

In addition, the region's median home price fell 24 percent from a year earlier to $385,000.

The month-to-month sales increase in the six-county region was well above the average gain of only 1.2 percent seen from March to April since DataQuick began keeping statistics in 1988.

"Quite a few more buyers stepped off the sidelines last month to snap up homes at substantial discounts relative to the market's short-lived peak," DataQuick President Marshall Prentice said.

Sales of new and resale homes and condos reached 15,615 in April, up from 12,808 in March and the highest monthly total in Southern California since August, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Sales were down, however, from 19,269 in April 2007, marking the weakest April tally since 1995, DataQuick said.

Homes under $500,000 accounted for two-thirds of the monthly sales gain in the region that includes Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties, DataQuick said.

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