Home sales in Central Alberta at the midway mark of 2012 were up nearly 18 per cent from the six-month tally last year.

Multiple Listing Service statistics released by the Central Alberta Realtors Association on Tuesday indicate that 2,224 homes in the area were sold from January to June of this year, as compared with 1,889 for the same period in 2011.

The city of Red Deer accounted for 957 of this year’s sales, up 17 per cent from 819 in 2011; while the surrounding area combined for 1,267 sales, an 18 per cent improvement over the 1,070 transactions recorded for the same period last year.

For June alone, there were 188 home sales in Red Deer, up 11 per cent from the 170 in that month in 2011. The June tally for the outlying region was 257, a 21 per cent jump from last June’s figure of 213.

The average selling price in Red Deer last month was $298,942, as compared with $290,374 a year earlier. Outside the city, the average price in June was $256,685, down from the June 2011 averge of $263,311.

In May of this year, there were 198 MLS sales in Red Deer with an average price of $320,442. For the same month in the surrounding region, there were 262 sales at an average price of $252,817.

Average prices include homes of all types, and may not be representative of market trends.

During the first six months of 2012, the Central Alberta Realtors Association processed 1,583 residential listings in Red Deer, including 293 in June. That was down three per cent from the 1,626 listings for the same period in 2011.

For the surrounding area, 3,245 home listings were processed, with 596 of these in June. That marked a two per cent decline from 3,303 in 2011.