Housing Sales Slide Again; Possible Upswing in Sight : Real estate: A survey shows that transactions dropped 17% from January. Preliminary March figures indicate a rebound.

Sales of existing single-family houses and condominiums in the San Fernando Valley slid sharply in February, reaching the lowest monthly sales level since December, 1982, the San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors said Monday.

But early figures for March indicate that the housing market may be rebounding now that the Gulf War is over.

Combined sales of existing single-family houses and condominiums dropped 17% in February to 535 from 641 in January.

Meanwhile, the number of single-family houses resold in February fell 20%, to 391 from 488 in January. Monthly sales fell 35% from February, 1990, when 602 houses were sold.

“The market hit bottom during the last quarter of 1990 and the war stopped buyers cold, but now it’s over and home buyers have returned,” board President Steve Owen said in a statement.

According to the board, 732 house and condominium sales were in escrow at the end of February, compared with the 535 that actually took place during the month.

Typically, the number of pending sales at the end of a given month is about equal to the number of sales during the month, said Jim Link, the board’s executive vice president. The higher number of pending transactions indicates that home sales could revive in March.

“I have heard that in different parts of Southern California home sales have started to pick up,” said Diana Meyer, staff economist for Countrywide Funding Corp., a mortgage lender that operates 91 retail lending offices in 35 states.

Meyer warned that house sales typically increase in March anyway, but she added that in the period since allied forces entered Kuwait, the number of applications for home loans made at Countrywide offices has increased by about 20% to 40% compared to a year earlier.

The average resale price of a single-family house fell 1% in February to $294,200 from $297,300 in January. The average price in February was almost unchanged from $293,800 a year ago.

Perhaps responding to the slow sales pace, sellers in the San Fernando Valley added 5% fewer houses to the market in February than they did in January; 2,021 houses were newly put up for sale compared with 2,125 in the previous month.

Nevertheless, the number of single-family houses that went unsold rose 7% in February to 9,123 from 8,546 in January; the supply of unsold houses on the market climbed about 2% from 8,960 in February, 1990.

Meanwhile, 144 condominiums were sold in February, down 6% from 153 in January--and down 48% from 277 in February, 1990. The average resale price of a condominium last month fell 4% to $143,000 from $149,600 in January. The February average represented an 8% drop from $156,000 a year earlier.

The Valley realty board, the largest in California, reports housing sales by its members in the area from Agoura to North Hollywood.

Its statistics do not include sales of most new residences.

February Valley Home Sales North West Avg. Price: $284,500 Sales: 28 North Central Avg. Price: $249,700 Sales: 67 North East Avg. Price: $178,400 Sales: 62 South West Avg. Price: $340,000 Sales: 83 South Central Avg. Price: $424,300 Sales: 51 South East Avg. Price: $294,200 Sales: 100