Greater Vancouver’s housing sales volume rose 1 per cent in May amid early signs that the region’s real estate market could be slowly inching back.

The number of resale properties that changed hands on the multiple listing service last month was 2,882, up from 2,852 sales in May of 2012, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

The board’s May home index price, which strips out the most expensive properties, was $598,400 for single-detached homes, condos and townhouses – a decrease of 4.3 per cent from the same month in 2012, but up 1.8 per cent since January of this year.

The slight increase in homes sold on the MLS in May – an extra 30 – contrasts with monthly decreases in sales volume last year that ranged from 13.2 per cent to 32.5 per cent.

In February this year, sales volume fell 29.4 per cent year-over-year, but the pace of transactions has been gradually picking up. The last time that Greater Vancouver experienced a year-over-year gain in monthly sales came in September of 2011, when 2,246 properties changed hands, up 1.1 per cent from 2,220 in September of 2010.

Greater Vancouver board president Sandra Wyant said the number of resale homes sold last month is still 19.4 per cent below the 10-year sales average for May.

“We’ve seen some steadying trends over the last three months,” Ms. Wyant said in a statement. “The number of homes listed for sale has been keeping pace with the number of property sales, leading to a balanced sales-to-listings ratio. This is having a stabilizing influence on home price activity.”

A measurement known as the sales-to-active-listings ratio was 17 per cent in Greater Vancouver in May. B.C. real estate agents consider it a balanced market when the ratio ranges from 15 to 20 per cent. It is deemed a buyer’s market below 15 per cent and a seller’s market above 20 per cent in the Vancouver region.

In the Fraser Valley, which includes the sprawling and less-expensive Vancouver suburb of Surrey, benchmark May prices for single-family detached homes, townhouses and condos slipped 0.5 per cent to $427,200. Sales volume in the Fraser Valley declined 14.7 per cent last month to 1,379.

The sales-to-active-listings ratio was 13 per cent in the Fraser Valley in May, while the index price for single-family detached homes was $549,200 last month, up 0.2 per cent from May of 2012.

“In order for there to be significant downward pressure on home prices, you need to have a sustained period of time when the ratio of sales-to-actives is in the single digits, and because that hasn’t happened, prices are remaining relatively stable,” Fraser Valley board president Ron Todson said in a statement.