However, condominium sales were down 27 percent and condominium prices also declined.
C. Scott Bradley, president of the association, called the February results better than expected. He called it an upswing except for the continued weakness in condominium sales and said the February sales resulted from contracts written during the normally slow year-end holiday season.
"Although it's impossible to predict when our local economy will become healthy again, we're optimistic that a turnaround in the housing market is near," Bradley said.
The board does not report sales of new units. Its Multiple Listing Service recorded that 116 previously owned single-family homes changed hands last month, compared with 104 in February 1996. There were 107 condominium resales last month, down from 147 in the year-earlier month.
The median price among single-family homes last month was $323,000, up half a percentage point from $321,250 in the year-earlier month. The median price among condominiums, $160,000, was down 5.3 percent from the $169,000 February 1996 median, the level where half the prices were higher and half lower.