While there are some signs of improvement, the home sales market remains sluggish, according to a report released on Wednesday.

    One real estate agent who has been working in Centralia for almost 25 years suggested that although mortgage interest rates are attractively low, too many people are jobless and can only afford to rent.

    “We’re just not seeing that much activity, we’re not seeing that much in terms of buyers right now,” said Jim Elder, owner and broker at Elder and Associates Realty.

    Elder, whose small downtown Centralia office includes just himself and two retired agents, said those who want to sell their homes are waiting, because the amount they can get seems so low.

    “I’ve had very few local people willing to put a house on the market right now,” he said.

    The monthly report tracking single-family home and condominium sales in a large chunk of Washington shows that compared with last year at this time, the number of homes newly listed for sale is down, while the number of deals struck between buyers and sellers is up, as are the number of home sales that were finalized in July.

    Locally, in Lewis County, the figures are not much changed from the previous month.

    In July, 157 homes were newly listed for sale in the county, compared with 154 in June. That makes 779 houses in Lewis County available for sale, according to the Kirkland-based Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

    There were 90 pending sales — those in which an offer is made and accepted, but the deal hasn’t yet closed — as of the release on the monthly report. The previous month, the figure was 81.

    The number of home sales closed in Lewis County in July was 63, the same as in June.

    The Northwest Multiple Listing Service tracks activities in 19 counties in western and central Washington. The NMLS is owned by its member brokers.

    What Elder has been seeing for the past several months are houses put up for sale which have been foreclosed upon by banks, he said. He serves primarily Lewis and Thurston counties.

    Centralia’s John L. Scott broker Brent Taylor, has observed the same.

    “What we do see are bank-owner homes sold with drastic price cuts,” Taylor said on Wednesday. “That’s not so good for other sellers.”

    Taylor, with nine agents who specialize in Lewis and South Thurston County, said there are some investors, even first-time investors out looking. But there is a larger inventory of homes available than he likes to see, he said.

    The real estate agent offers an optimistic outlook, however.

    His office is helping more first-time buyers than usual, those hoping to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit, he said. Taylor is reminding folks they may also qualify if they have not owned a home in the past three years.

    Because the federal program is good only on deals which close by Nov. 30, Taylor is telling prospective buyers they should probably find what they want and strike a deal by mid-September to make that deadline.

    The median price of homes in Lewis County last month was $189,900. That means half the homes sold are higher and half lower than that amount. The average was $184,635.

    Taylor remains upbeat about the market.

    “Compared to six months ago, in my opinion, we’ve made a lot of good headway, and compared with last year,” he said.

Thurston County Homes Sales:

Other figures reported by Northwest Multiple Listing Service on Wednesday show in Thurston County, the following:

• In Thurston County in July, there were 607 new listings of single-family homes and condominiums, up from 500 the previous month.

• There were 396 pending sales compared with 391 the month before.

• There were 284 closings in July, down from 312 in June.

• The median price of a home sold in July was $256,326, up from $239,975.

Grays Harbor County Home Sales:

The NMLS monthly report shows the following for July in Grays Harbor County:

• In Grays Harbor County during July, there were 196 new listings of single-family homes and condominiums, compared with 204 in June.

• There were 65 pending sales, down from 90 pending sales the previous month.

• There were 53 closings, down from 60 closings the month before.

• The median price of a home sold in July was $169,900, up from $117,750 in June.

    Sharyn L. Decker: (360) 807-8235