Overall, county sales declined 18.9 percent in April compared to the same month in 2007.

Keep in mind that this is a one-month snapshot, with some areas selling as few as a couple dozen homes during the month. It’s instructive, however, to look at where these areas were a year ago and are now as the spring selling season kicks off.

Here are the number of homes, including houses and condos, sold in each area, with the corresponding rise or decline compared to April 2007, according to the MLS.

Area April Year-over-

year change

Anderson Island 2 100%

Bonney Lake/ Lake Tapps 113 -12.4%

Browns Point 19 +11.8%

DuPont 50 +72.4%

Eatonville 41 -6.8%

Fife 48 -17.2%

Gig Harbor 60 -48.3%

Lakewood 40 -4.8%

Parkland 52 -10.3%

Puyallup 180 -9.1%

Roy 17 +30.8%

Spanaway 65 -1.5%

Tacoma, Central 22 -62.7%

Tacoma, North 55 -31.3%

Tacoma, South 46 -27%

Tacoma, Southeast 37 -49.3%

UP/Fircrest 47 -17.5%

Devona Wells, The News Tribune