While third quarter sales information is not due out until later this week, local real estate executives say the early returns show continued, year-over-year declines in sales numbers.

    Still, there are also clear signs that despite the gloomy numbers, the bottom is far from falling out either.

   Overall, average downtown Boston condo prices dropped to $430,473 during the third quarter, down from $438,750 during the same period in 2005, said John Ford, head of Ford Realty, citing preliminary numbers from a local data service.

Sales dropped during the same period to 1,261, down from 1,500 during the third quarter of 2005. Time on market, in turn, increased to an average of 97 days, up from 58 last year, said Ford, citing early numbers found on the Mulitiple Listing Service.

     ?It?s a mixed bag,? Ford said. ?It appears more and more likely it will be a soft landing and not a crash.?

    Meanwhile, sellers of high-priced luxury units, in some cases, appear to be holding out for bigger numbers, even if it means no sale at all.

    In deluxe Midtown, which includes the posh Ritz-Carlton towers, the number of condos sold dropped to less than half of last year?s 101. But the average sale price increased roughly 20 percent to $1.2 million, Ford said. Boston condos , Boston real estate