Butler County home sales climbed more than 30 percent in February from the same month last year as low mortgage rates, better loan availability and reasonable prices drew buyers into the market, industry experts said.

“We’re seeing a pretty good active market. Inventory is low, but it’s slowly starting to come on,” said real estate agent Kathy Thacker, sales manager of the Oxford firm Century 21 Thacker & Associates Inc.

The year is starting strong. For the whole Cincinnati market, January and February each had their best months for number of homes sold since 2007, according to Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors.

The realtors’ association said Thursday that 292 single family homes and condominiums sold just in Butler County last month, up 38 percent year-over-year from February 2012 sales of 212 homes. The Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service provides Butler County numbers to the Journal.

The average sales price grew as well. Butler County’s average sold price in February grew 22 percent to $129,026. A year ago it was $105,640, according to the realtors association.

All of Cincinnati — including Butler and Warren counties — reported 1,335 homes sold in February, a 15 percent increase from 1,163 home sales in February 2012. The Cincinnati market average sold price was $143,424, up 10 percent year-over-year.

Low interest rates and prices and loosening credit restrictions “are combining to make home affordability at record highs,” said Jim Russell, senior equity analyst of The Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank, the bank’s wealth management arm.

Interest rates averaged 3.53 percent nationally in February for a fixed 30-year mortgage, up from 3.41 percent in January. But rates are still below the average 4.99 percent it was in February 2010, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

With “the low interest rates, you don’t have to have a lot of money down to buy a house,” Thacker said.

Economists with PNC Financial Services Group expect the housing market recovery will further strengthen this year, thanks to record-low mortgage rates from expansionary monetary policy, according to the bank’s most recent national economic outlook.

Federal Reserve Board policy has been to buy U.S. treasury debt and mortgage debt to keep interest rates low and stimulate the economy as long as unemployment levels remain high.

The overall economy and housing market are closely intertwined, said Russell with U.S. Bank.

“We think one of the things driving housing is an increased sense that we’re through the worst,” Russell said. “It is a reinforcing mechanism because for most people, 60 percent, houses are their biggest financial asset and its stopped losing value.”

The wealth effect of increasing home values bolsters consumer spending, and the rest of the economy.

“We do not feel like this is a flash in the pan,” Russell said.

Statewide, preliminary estimates show that 7,360 sales of single family homes and condominiums closed last month, up 10 percent from February 2012 home sales of 6,680 units, said Ohio Association of Realtors. The February Ohio average sales price was approximately $125,000 compared to $115,930 a year ago.