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Jim Franklin, a Realtor with Prudential California Realty in Palm Springs has seen a dramatic improvement in recent months.

Of 20 listings that Franklin has, 20 are in escrow.

“We sold four in Movie Colony East, and they all sold in four or five days with multiple offers,” he said.

One Movie Colony East home priced at $250,000 sold for $285,000 cash, Franklin said.

Likewise, one of Stern’s clients recently spotted a three-bedroom, midcentury home in a nice Rancho Mirage neighborhood priced at $250,000. The client put in a bid — but so did seven others.

It’s not just lower priced homes that are selling, Realtors and analysts said.

The high-end market is improving as well, Stern said.

Statewide, non-seasonally adjusted sales of homes priced at more than $500,000 increased nearly 11 percent last month, said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.

Less inventory

Berkemer said the valley’s inventory of homes for sale is approaching record lows, with fewer than 3,400 active listings on the market as of May 27.

That’s down from 5,647 in April 2011, a Desert Area Multiple Listing Service trend report shows.

The inventory of bank- owned properties fell nearly 32 percent in April compared with April 2011.

CDAR reported that 39 percent of single-family sales were bank-owned properties or short sales last month, compared with 52 percent in April 2011.

And about 21 percent of condo sales were foreclosures or short sales, down from 29 percent the same month a year ago.

The Coachella Valley’s increase in home sales was reflective of the uptick for all of Southern California.

About 5 percent more homes were sold last month in the six-county area compared to April 2011, pointing to a slow crawl back toward normalcy, DataQuick President John Walsh said.

The median price for all Southern California homes rose 3.6 percent to $290,000 last month, the first such gain in 16 months.

Other factors that continue to affect the real estate market are that many homeowners are still “underwater,” uncertainty about the economy and “the way lenders will handle the many thousands of homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments,” Walsh said.

LeFrancis Arnold, CAR president, believes rock-bottom interest rates, record-high housing affordability and a continually improving economy should mean steady improvement for the housing sector through the end of 2012.

Franklin believes opportunities for buyers — and renters — to scarf up bargains in the valley won’t last forever.

“I see prices going up 10 percent between now and this time next year,” Franklin said.

Berkemer said buyers with cash still have an edge in this market but that window of opportunity appears to be narrowing more quickly than many would have thought just a few months ago.

“In a recovering market, opportunity still knocks — but rarely lingers,” Berkemer said.