By Jeff McKinney
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Historic low interest rates and the United States' success in the war in Iraq helped boost home sales in April in Greater Cincinnati, bouncing back from a double-digit sales drop in March.

APRIL SALES

Sales of existing homes and condominiums rose in Greater Cincinnati in April, compared with April 2002. Home sales Average (closings) price Ohio 2003 2,007 $160,873 2002 2,004 $159,859 Kentucky 2003 532 $140,400 2002 445 $129,016 Indiana 2003 83 $132,892 2002 89 $130,437 Source: Boards of Realtors

The number of single-family homes sold in Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana rose 3.3 percent last month to 2,622 from 2,538 last April, according to local boards of Realtors.

In Southwest Ohio, sales of existing homes sold in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties came in at 2,007, up from 2,004 in April 2001, according to the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors. The number of units sold last month also represented the best sales ever for the month of April.

The increase in April sales came after sales in March dropped 11 percent from March 2002.

Low mortgage rates, better weather and consumers feeling more confident that the United States pretty much accomplished what it wanted to in the war in Iraq - demolishing Saddam Hussein's regime - helped make more people comfortable about buying a home, said Kathy Overstreet, president of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors.

"Considering that last April was a record, to beat it this April was unbelievable," she said. "Just sustaining that kind of volume, in an otherwise weak economy, shows the housing market has been incredible."

Sales for the Tristate were helped again by brisk activity in Northern Kentucky. Sales mainly for Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties came in at 532 in April, up 19.5 percent from 445 last April, according to the Northern Kentucky Association of Realtors.

Historic low interest rates, which have been driving the housing market since 2001 despite an overall sluggish economy and weak stock market, again were the industry's saving grace.

Locally, the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate $100,000 mortgage for April was 5.83 percent, down from 7.03 percent from a year earlier.

Nationally, last month's sales activity rose 5.6 percent to a 5.84 million annual rate from 5.53 million rate in March, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales in April were up 3.2 percent from the 5.66 million unit pace in April 2002.

Still, sales in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky, which makes up roughly 95 percent of the Tristate's total, were off slightly to 8,099 through April, versus the record-setting pace of 8,148 during the first four months of last year. Year-to-date sales for Southeastern Indiana for this year were unavailable.

Overstreet said a key for how sales might go the rest of this year could depend on job security, saying that if the economy rebounds and people feel confident they will be working, that could help sales.

"The big thing now seems to be the job security issue," she said. "People won't put themselves at risk if they don't feel jobs are secure."

E-mail jmckinney@enquirer.com.