Just received this great news from my local Board of Realtors and had to share it.

Home sales in Salt Lake County are surging. Since October 2009, home sales have shown double-digit gains on a year-over year basis.

In fact, if you compare home sales from October 2009 through March 2010 with the same six-month period a year earlier, home/condo sales have climbed an astonishing 31 percent (5,230 sales vs. 3,990 sales)!

This year is indeed a turnaround from the past three years. The sales increases we’ve seen are in line with what economist James Wood predicted in a report commissioned by the Salt Lake Board earlier this year. Wood predicted that as many as 10,000 single-family homes could be sold this year in Salt Lake County, a nearly 10 percent increase compared to sales in 2009.

Much of the sales increases are due to low mortgage interest rates, more affordable home prices and the federal government’s home buyer tax credit.

These conditions continue to make this year the right time to buy a home. It’s a message all potential home buyers need to hear.