Home prices fell in half of US cities in the third quarter as banks stepped up repossessions of properties in default. However, the median price of a single-family home in the New York metropolitan area rose 4.3 percent in the third quarter, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday.

The median US price fell 0.2 percent to $177,900. In the New York metro area that includes Wayne, NJ and White Plains, NY, the average home price in the third quarter was $470,100, vs. $450,700 a year earlier. Long Island is excluded from this calculation.

The US housing market is struggling as lenders seize a record number of properties and unemployment hovers near a 26-year high.

Banks took over 288,345 homes in the period covered by the Realtors report, up 22 percent from a year earlier, said RealtyTrac Inc., a data firm in Irvine, Calif.

Foreclosures boost the supply of available homes and reduce prices because they sell at a discount.

“The bottom has proven to be quite elusive,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist of data firm Zillow.com in Seattle.

Meanwhile, US mortgage rates dropped to a record low, the first decline in a month. The rate for a 30-year fixed loan fell to 4.17 percent in the week ended yesterday from 4.24 percent.