Home sales in the Buffalo Niagara region rose from a year ago for the first time in nearly a year in May, as signs of a recovery start to take hold.

Last month, 906 homes changed hands locally, up 3.3 percent from 877 a year ago, according to new statistics released Monday from the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors. That’s the highest total since last October and the first time since last June that there’s been a year-over-year increase in closed sales.

Comparisons are only valid for the last four years, as BNAR changed how it calculated “units closed” so that it stopped including pending sales after 2005. But the May tally is also up 21 percent from April, the fourth straight month-to-month increase.

“For the first time in months, units closed is up from a year ago, so we’re excited about that,” said John Leonardi, executive vice president of BNAR. “It’s good news. It’s positive news. These are all good signs.”

However, pending sales were down 5.9 percent from a year ago, to 943, and were almost flat with 947 in April. That’s the lowest level of pending sales in May in more than a decade.

For the first five months, closed sales fell 11.4 percent to 3,124, while pending sales were down 9.3 percent to 3,775.

Pending sales are a better gauge of current activity because closed transactions often represent sales agreed to three months ago.

May also had the highest monthly inventory of homes on the market in a year.

There were 5,339 homes currently listed for sale locally in May. That’s down 6 percent from a year ago, but only slightly from 5,381 in April. New listings in May, however, rose 6.5 percent to 1,672 from a year ago, though they were down 4.7 percent from April. So far, 2009 is the slowest year for new listings since 2002.

The average price in May was $124,640, down 1 percent from a year ago, but the highest level since last November. The median price — meaning half sold for more and half sold for less — was $110,000, up 4 percent. That’s the highest monthly median since last October, and the highest for May in more than a decade. The total volume of all sales in May rose 2 percent to $112.9 million.

Leonardi said the numbers are similar to where the local housing market was in 2004 and 2005, which he called “some of our best years” up until that time. And he’s hoping activity will “pick up even further” this month and in July because of the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers. The tax credit is only available for homes that close by Nov. 30, which means contracts must be signed by September.

A bipartisan bill has also been introduced in the U. S. Senate to authorize a $15,000 tax credit for any home buyer. The Mortgage Bankers Association issued a statement Monday in support of Senate Bill 1230, introduced by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Leonardi said the national and local Realtors’ groups are also strongly in favor.

“Stimulating the housing market is one of the best ways Congress can help accelerate the recovery of our national economy,” MBA Chairman David G. Kittle said in a statement. “Offering $15,000 to potential home buyers is a powerful incentive that I believe will jump start the housing market.”

Indeed, Leonardi said, Realtors have been pushing for such a measure for some time.

“The Senate clearly understands the need that, while this [recession] may have started on Wall Street, the true recovery will need to happen on Main Street,” Leonardi said. “They are to be applauded because this is really what the economy needs. Hopefully, the House of Representatives will see the same light.”

Nationwide, a report this month by Integrated Asset Services LLC of Denver found home prices nationwide were down 13 percent from April 2008 to April 2009 and 16.4 percent since the market peak in 2006. By geographic region, the biggest year-over-year drop was 15.2 percent in the West, while the smallest was 9.6 percent in the Midwest.

But prices had stabilized from March to April, and were even up a notch in the Northeast. In the Mid-Atlantic, which includes New York, prices were down 8.7 percent from a year earlier, but rose 0.7 percent from March.