Although analysts locally and nationwide cautioned against reading too much into the one-month rise, in Salt Lake sales of single-family homes and condominiums climbed 19 percent after three months of declines. Sales rose to 744 transactions from 627 in January, according to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.

Locally, the median sales price for homes and condos sold last month was $225,000, down 4 percent from $234,950 in January and off 1 percent from a year ago.

Jillinda Bowers, president of the Salt Lake board, predicted that prices would continue to moderate until they are more in line with local wages. That could take several more months, she said.

"I think people are very motivated to sell and are reducing prices to get their properties sold."

Tucker Hart Adams, president of the Adams Group Inc. economic consulting firm in Colorado Springs, Colo., agreed. "When something goes on sale and the price goes way down, people buy more of it. Prices have dropped substantially, and my guess is Salt Lake and Utah are no different."

Nationally, sales of existing homes rose by 2.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million units, said the National Association of Realtors. It was the biggest increase in a year and caught economists by surprise. They had been expecting a small decline. Instead, sales rose, reversing six months of steady drops.

The national trade group reported that the median existing sales price in February fell to $195,900. That was the largest year-over-year drop on records that go back to 1999.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said that prices in some formerly hot markets in California and Florida were seeing significant price declines as sellers try to attract buyers.

One month, however, does not make a trend. Many economists are predicting that the steep slump in housing nationally will not bottom-out until later this year, after prices fall further and allow huge levels of unsold inventories to be reduced.

By region of the country, sales surged by 11.3 percent in the Northeast and were up 2.5 percent in the Midwest and 2.1 percent in the South. The only region of the country to see a decline in the sales was the West, where sales dropped by 1.1 percent, perhaps because states such as California, Arizona and Nevada are still reeling after years of speculative buying.

Sales of existing homes nationally fell by 12.7 percent in 2007, the biggest decline in 25 years. Over the past two years, housing has been in a steep downturn made worse by a severe credit crunch as financial institutions tightened their lending standards in reaction to their multibillion-dollar losses on mortgages that have gone into default.