March Housing Sales Up 12% Over ’91 Pace : Real estate: Low mortgage rates helped spur buyers. The average price of residences sold during the month was lower.

The area’s housing market, spurred by continued low interest rates, finally picked up steam in March as resales of residential real estate rose 12% from a year earlier, the San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors said Monday.

The sales of 878 single-family detached houses and condominiums last month also surged 59% from February, although some of that gain no doubt reflects a seasonal pickup in the market from the winter months. Also, heavy rains in February kept a lid on sales.

Nonetheless, the gains in March indicated that the local housing recession might have hit bottom, as buyers stepped up to take advantage of relatively low mortgage interest rates. They may have been prodded to act because rates had begun edging higher in recent weeks.

Real estate executives took a cautious stance toward the March results. Lorrie Griffey, president of the Valley realty board, said “one major question remains unanswered--will the housing market sustain this sales pace or is the March increase merely a temporary respite?”

Jim Link, the group’s executive vice president, said, “We think the market will show a slow, steady increase this year, but we’ll have to wait to see if this truly is the beginning of recovery.”

Housing prices in the Valley, meanwhile, eased in March. The average resale price for a detached single-family house was $270,100, down 8% from $294,200 in February and a 4% drop from $281,600 a year earlier.

The median resale price was $220,000, down 2% from February and a 1% decline from March, 1991. The median means half the houses sold for more than $220,000, and half sold for less.

Resales of single-family houses totaled 669 units in March, up 51% from 443 in February and a 12% increase from 595 units a year earlier.

There were 209 sales of existing condominiums last month, nearly double the 110 sold in February and an 11% gain from the 188 sold a year ago, the board said. The average resale price of a condominium in March was $159,200, up 6% from February and a 9% increase from a year earlier.

The upswing in local resale activity followed reports of improving housing markets statewide and across the nation.

Sales of existing single-family houses in California in February jumped 15% from a year earlier, the California Assn. of Realtors reported last month. And the real estate group’s national association reported a 16% year-to-year increase across the United States in February.

The Valley realty board, California’s largest, reports housing sales figures from its 8,000 members in the area from Agoura to North Hollywood. Its statistics do not include sales of most new residences.

March Valley House Sales North West: Avg. Price: $296,500 Sales: 38 North Central: Avg. Price: $265,500 Sales: 104 North East: Avg. Price: $163,300 Sales: 106 South West: Avg. Price: $309,500 Sales: 219 South Central: Avg. Price: $295,400 Sales: 67 South East: Avg. Price: $273,400 Sales: 135