Higher Interest Rates Blamed for Slowing Home Sales : Real estate: April’s median sales price of $170,000 was down 5% from a year ago. Observers who were previously optimistic fear fledgling recovery may be waning.

A sharp downturn in sales activity in the San Fernando Valley housing market last month has local real estate observers fretting that the rise in interest rates over the past year may be choking off a fragile recovery.

Sale prices of single-family houses in the Valley have been tumbling for about five years and slipped again in April to a median price of $170,000, according to the San Fernando Valley Assn. of Realtors. April’s figure was $500 higher than the previous month’s median, but $9,000 less, or 5% lower, than that of April, 1994. The median is the price at which half the houses sold for more and half for less.

Until last month, real estate experts could take comfort that for more than a year sales activity appeared to be gaining speed. But that ended last month, when 841 single-family houses sold, up slightly from 812 in March, but down 17% from the 987 sales recorded a year earlier.

The dip is partly due to a large number of escrows that closed in April, 1994, after being delayed by the Northridge earthquake. But Jim Link, executive vice president of the Valley Assn. of Realtors, said the market may be at a turning point.

“Even taking into account an allowance for bad weather this year and the quake last year, we’re concerned that higher interest rates may be cooling off what was shaping up to be a fairly optimistic recovery,” Link said. “The public mood is better than a year ago, but we also don’t think the economy is so rosy that it is no longer a concern.”

The average sale price of a single-family house was $216,400 in April, down 2% from $220,100 in March, and 2% lower than the $219,700 average recorded in April a year ago. Condominium sale prices also continued to fall. The median sale price of a condo last month was $105,500, up 11% from the previous month, but down 8% from a median of $115,000 in April of 1994. The average sale price of a condo last month tumbled to $110,600, which was $4,200 higher than in March, but $24,700 lower than that of last April.

The number of condominium sales that closed escrow in April was 156, two fewer than in March, but 18% higher than the 128 sales recorded in April, 1994.

The Valley realty association, the largest in California, reports housing sales by its 7,200 members from North Hollywood to Calabasas. Its figures generally do not include sales of new residences.