LOS ANGELES — The pace of California home sales in April slowed to a 12-year low last month, a sign that buyers are holding out for lower prices and many sellers are waiting for the market to improve, a real estate research firm said.

Homebuyers in California purchased 34,949 homes during the month, a 28.5 percent decline from April 2006 and down 12.2 percent from March, according to a report released Wednesday by DataQuick Information Systems.

"There's not this sense of urgency out there," DataQuick analyst John Karevoll said. "Sellers that aren't getting the price that they want are just taking their homes off the market."

Last month was the slowest April since 1995, when 27,625 homes were sold statewide.

California home sales have been down on an annual basis during the past 19 months.

Historically, sales begin ramping up in the spring. The decline this year may be due in part to the surge of homebuying that occurred during the housing boom.

The median price paid for a California home last month increased to $484,000, up 3.4 percent from $468,000 in the year-ago period. The figure was unchanged from the median price in March.

Prices have fallen for entry-level homes, and many high-priced counties have seen year-over-year median price declines.

Still, home values are well beyond the levels seen at the start of the decade.

Home sales in the San Francisco Bay area slowed last month, with Alameda, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma counties posting median price declines.