“For the year to date, we’ve seen a 22 percent increase in properties going under contract and a 20 percent increase on actual closings,” Krueger said as he addressed the South Shore Rotary Club on Staten Island.

Of the closings, he added, the medium selling price was 3½ percent higher than it had been for the same period a year ago.

Additionally encouraging, is that inventories are down 11 percent.

“The National Association of Realtors recently predicted that existing-home prices will continue to increase through the third quarter of the year,” Krueger said.

The wait for a turnaround in the local real estate marketplace was economically painful for homeowners and REALTORSÒ alike.

Only 57 percent of those who made a living in the Island’s real estate industry during its peak in 2005 can presently claim it as their source of livelihood, Krueger said.

On the Island today, the number of people making any money at all within the trade has plummeted by one-third since the downturn began, he said.

Unlike some regions, where investors often unload properties for a loss or walk away when the cost of a mortgage far exceeds the value of the real estate, Staten Island homeowners struggle to remain.

“In terms of the overall market, the fact that people are not running from their homes is a good sign,” Krueger said.

The recent increase of Island home sales, along with anticipated market growth, Krueger said, are likely attributable to a combination of factors, such as “pent-up consumer demand, enticing lower prices, continuing record-low mortgage rates, a recently extended tax credit for first-time buyers and newly implemented incentives for some repeat buyers.”

 SIBOR may be visited online at www.siborealtors.com.