By Reporter staff

New listings, pending sales and closed sales of single-family homes and condos throughout Bellevue generally rose in April over March. The median sales price also was up.

J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, described the market as “bifurcated.”

“Sales are up and prices have stabilized in the more affordable market,” he explained, while noting the mid- to upper-end markets are experiencing entirely different conditions.

Northwest Multiple Listing Service director Kathy Estey agreed.

“We had our best month since September,” she commented, but said sales of homes priced at $1 million or more are still slow compared to the pace of a few years ago. Estey, the managing broker at John L. Scott’s downtown Bellevue office, said sales of high-end homes lag in part due to limited availability of mortgages for homes priced above conforming loan limits. (The median asking price for homes currently offered for sale in West Bellevue, a market served by Estey’s office, is more than $1.5 million.)

In West Bellevue, there were 53 pending sales of single-family homes or condos in April, up from 45 in March. There were 18 closes sales in April compared with 16 in March.

In East Bellevue, there were 80 pending sales of single-family homes or condos in April, up from 67 in March. There were 37 closed sales in April, up from 29 in March.

The median sales price of single-family homes and condos also was up in April from March.

In West Bellevue, the median sales price was $715,000 in March, up from $642,500 in March.

In East Bellevue, the median price was $455,000 in April, up from $419,000 in March.

April numbers still were lower than a year ago for the same month. In April, 2008, the median sales price for a single-family home or condo in West Bellevue was $837,000. A year ago March in East Bellevue, the median sales price for a single-family home or condo was $470,000.

Whether the housing market is turning around still is uncertain, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

“We need several months of sustained growth to demonstrate a recovery in housing, which is necessary for the overall economy to turn around,” Yun said.

Northwest Multiple Listing Service, owned by its member brokers, is the largest full-service MLS in the Northwest.