"Most experts are forecasting that the 2010 housing market will look very much like it did in 2009. We tend to agree," Shelton says. "When you see our home prices staying fairly flat and sales still going up substantially from one year ago, that's not bad. We'll take it."

In general, the association's latest report showed single-family home prices staying about the same as previous months and home sales continuing to increase compared to the previous year According to the association, in February the median price of single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada was $135,694, up 0.6% from $134,925 in January, but down 12.8% from one year ago. The median price for condos and townhomes decreased 5.8%, from $69,000 in January to $65,000 in February. That's down 13.3% from $75,000 one year ago. The total number of local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in February was 3,075, down from 3,266 in January, but up from 2,730 in February 2009.

The total number of local homes listed for sale increased slightly from January to February, but that the number of homes that are actually available with no pending or contingent offer on them decreased slightly, Shelton pointed out. He thinks the Southern Nevada housing market could actually benefit from an increased supply of available homes to meet the steady demand.

As in recent months, Shelton also saw positive developments in the continued increase in short sales and decrease in sales involving foreclosed homes. In January, 21.1% of all existing homes sold in Southern Nevada were short sales. That number increased to 22% in February.

Shelton says that the decreasing percentage of bank-owned home sales―down from 57.4% of all sales in January to 53% in February―shows that lenders are becoming more willing to work with homeowners and work out short sales as an alternative to foreclosing."Sales are relative to inventory," Shelton said. "I think we need more selection to fuel more sales. If you look at the number of homes that are really available and our current sales pace, we really only have about a three-month supply of homes on the market. I think buyers want more selection."