-By Wayne Faulkner
www.StarNewsOnline.com
Wilmington-area home sales continued to show improvement in December, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors.
The number of homes sold through the WRAR’s multiple listing service totaled 351 in December, compared with 299 in December 2008.
It was the fourth straight month that sales exceeded year-earlier levels, according to the WRAR data.
A string of year-over-year improvements is necessary to show any kind of sustained rebound from the housing bust. April McDavid, then president of the WRAR, said in the fall that it would be 2010 before a truer picture emerged on the housing market’s strength.
Sales reflect actual closings of deals. That means that contracts may have been signed 30 to 90 days before.
The average price of a home sold in December was $223,312, compared with $240,147 in December 2008. The median price - the point where half the homes sold for less and half for more - was $175,000 in December, compared with $185,500 a year earlier.
The average time it took to sell a home was 135 days in December, almost even with a year earlier.