After stealing the spotlight for several months, it seems like the California recovery is plateauing at normal levels, according to recent data from San Diego-based DataQuick.

The month of January showed a 27.4% drop in sales from the month before, down from 39,760 to 28,871. Last month's sales were still 2.7% above the numbers from a year earlier.

It is normal for sales to drop from December to January. However, January’s sales were 8.7% below the average of 31,607 sales for all months of January since 1988.

The median price paid for a California home dropped also, down 3% from $299,000 in December to $290,000.

Of the total number of homes sold in January, 18.7% were foreclosed on over the past year. This number is up from December when 15.8% of homes sold were foreclosures.