Heavy discounting on foreclosed homes and low interest rates continued to power a homebuying spree across the West in September, sending sales of existing homes in the region soaring at an annual pace reminiscent of the days of the housing boom, according to two reports Friday.

About 100,000 existing homes and condos were sold last month in the 13-state region. Without adjusting for seasonal factors, sales were up nearly 43 percent from the same month last year, but declined 9.6 percent versus August's total, according to the National Association of Realtors.

With sharply discounted foreclosures making up a larger slice of overall sales, the median price in the West plunged almost 19 percent from a year ago to $253,600 - slightly higher than what the median was five years ago, the association said.

Nationally, existing home sales rose 7.8 percent from September 2007, but declined 9.6 percent from August last year, on an unadjusted basis. The U.S. median price tumbled 9 percent to $191,600.

In the West, where foreclosures have been particularly pronounced, the region led the nation in terms of sales pace and median home price declines.

Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego posted the sharpest spike in home sales last month, according to the Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report, released Friday. The data includes all home sales recorded in the metro area by all local agents, regardless of company affiliation.

Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Phoenix were among the top five metros to post the steepest median price decline in the U.S., with Detroit second overall behind Los Angeles.

The year-over-year surge in sales might appear like the makings of a turnaround, but housing experts are quick to downplay that scenario.

For one, they note the easy comparison to September 2007's sales, which were dismal in the wake of the credit crunch that started just months before, drying up lending for all but traditional conforming loans at $417,000 or below.

In California alone, that caused some 30 percent of real estate contracts to fall through, according to the National Association of Realtors.

As the financial crisis has spread and deepened in recent weeks, it has also cast doubt on a budding housing recovery.

"We're headed toward a very serious recession, maybe one of the worst ones since at least the '80s, and when people lose their jobs, when there isn't job growth, people don't move around, so homes don't sell as much," said Patrick Newport economist at IHS Global Insight. "These numbers are for September, so they don't reflect what happened in October, when the market really started to freeze up."

In general, a healthy housing market is defined as one where all kinds of homes are selling, not just bargain-basement foreclosed properties, Newport added.

Such concerns weren't in play for buyers in Las Vegas, who drove sales up by 163 percent compared to a year ago, according to the AP-Re/Max report.

"There's been definitely an uptick in activity," said Mike Dobranski, who sells real estate at Prudential Americana Group in Las Vegas.

He's seeing a mix of first-time homebuyers taking advantage of low-priced foreclosures and investors, many of them foreign buyers from Canada and Great Britain.

Homes listed at below $300,000 are luring multiple offers, while those above are having a tough time getting any takers, Dobranski said.

"The market has pretty much split in two," he said.

Driving the trend are banks that have begun pricing foreclosed properties below market value, then sit back as bargain hunters drive prices back up.

The median price of a single-family home in Las Vegas fell almost 32 percent from a year ago to $195,000. It declined 7.1 percent from August's median, according to the AP-Re/Max report.

Many buyers also rushed to take advantage of seller-funded down payment assistance programs and a lower down payment threshold to qualify for a Federal Housing Administration-insured loan, Dobranski said.

One of those buyers is Sean Brooks, a financial analyst in Las Vegas.

He and his wife bought a four-bedroom, two and a half-bath house last month for $200,000.

The couple - first-time homeowners - began looking in June, but ended up combing exclusively through listings of foreclosed homes because they were the only properties that were in their price range.

"We knew the market was going to come down after all the prices skyrocketed," said Brooks, 26. "I didn't know the market was going to go down this much."

Brooks said he didn't have any misgivings about entering the housing market at a time when the nation is facing major economic turmoil and home prices are forecast to continue to decline for many months.

"The way we were looking at it, we're going to be in this house for 10 years," he said.

Outside of the Southwest, sales also rose in metros areas, including Denver, Salt Lake City, and Boise, Idaho.

Sales tumbled, meanwhile, in other areas, including Seattle, Honolulu, and Portland, Ore., and Billings, Mont.

Steve Walton, a real estate agent for Century 21 Hometown Brokers in Billings, said he expects October sales numbers will be down even further.

"Buyers are difficult to come by right now," Walton said, noting the number of sellers remains steady. "We didn't see a falloff in sales until the last two or three months."

Even though the economy in Billings strong, the perception of mounting negative U.S. economic news has many sellers concerned, Walton said.

"I don't think reality has changed; perception has changed," he said. "We've got folks who are saying 'I think it's going to get worse, or it could get worse, I don't want to be stuck with it if it gets worse."