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GREENSBORO — The local housing market may have finally found the basement.

For the past  three  quarters, the number of houses sold has increased, and this past quarter prices jumped for the first time since 2009 .

“I feel a little more encouraged,” said Don Jud , professor emeritus at UNCG’s Bryan School of Business and Economics . “I think there is a strong probability that we have hit bottom and started back up.”

Jud’s quarterly report to the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association , released Monday , showed the reason for his optimism.

It said sales of existing single-family dwellings increased 5.5 percent  for the second  quarter of 2011,  compared with the same quarter of 2010 . And they rose 0.3 percent  from the first  quarter of 2011  to the second.

What’s more, the average sale price increased from almost $149,000  in the first  quarter of the year to more than $152,000  in the second  quarter.

But even with that increase, house prices have fallen 3.3 percent  during  the past year.

“It’s wise to be cautiously optimistic,” Kathleen Sullivan , president of the Realtors association , said in a statement. “But it looks like the market is beginning to correct itself.”

The report, which covers transactions in Greensboro  and Guilford County  minus High Point  and Jamestown , shows that 574  houses were sold in the second  quarter, up from 544  during the same time last year.

The latest numbers are significant, Jud said, because the local housing market has been in decline for years.

Since local prices peaked in the second  quarter of 2007 , just before the start of the recession, they’ve fallen 20.1 percent .

Nationally, they’re down more than 28 percent . Since Jud began following local housing prices in 1997 , they’re down 25 percent.

“Housing today is a real bargain,” Jud said. 

Added Sullivan: “We’ve been saying that housing affordability was at an all-time high, and it now looks like homebuyers are finally taking advantage of the opportunity.”

Even so, it could take years for the inventory of houses on the market, especially those costing $500,000  or more, to be sold.

In the upper price range, the backlog will take nearly 24  months to erase. For  houses below $75,000 , there’s an 8.6  month inventory.

Overall, the market has nearly 11  months of inventory.

“That’s another indication that there’s a lot of choice,” Jud said. “It’s still not a great time to be a home seller.”

During  the past year, the report said, the time needed to sell a house has gone up, and sellers are getting a lower percentage of their listing price.

Jud acknowledges that the recovery could encounter some problems.

For example, there’s what he calls latent inventory: As more houses begin to sell, homeowners who have held off putting up “For Sale” signs may decide to test the market.

That would likely put a brake on rising home prices, he said.

And it could take years for single-family construction to recover. Locally, such building permits have fallen nearly 32 percent  during  the past year.

“It’s not a perfect picture,” Jud said. “I just think we are starting to move in a different direction.”

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com.