(July 22, 2010)    Real estate agencies are reporting mostly sunny news in second-quarter market reports, with a half-year of statistics that have so far trumped last year’s. Although they might indicate that the recession is beginning to lift, second-quarter sales were a little less rosy than first-quarter sales this year.

    According to Corcoran’s midyear residential report, the South Fork from Remsenburg to Montauk has seen an increase in sales volume of 134 percent as compared to the first half of 2009. Of that, there was a 104-percent increase in the luxury market, which is the top 10 percent of residential sales.

    Both sales volume and the number of units sold increased in the triple digits almost everywhere, with a slight exception in the Noyac and North Sea area, which saw a 21-percent drop in the number of units sold — 22 so far this year and 28 in the same period of 2009.

    All told, the number of units sold in the area went up 113 percent, from 433 in the first half of 2009 to 923 in 2010. Sales volume jumped by 134 percent. That number totaled $1.5 billion in 2010, as opposed to $639.6 million in 2009.

    As the market has been engaged in activity, inventory has increased steadily, from 7,288 units on the market in the second quarter of 2009 to 7,963 in the second quarter of 2010.

    At Town and Country Real Estate, Judy Desiderio, an owner, records her statistics differently from Corcoran, leaving out condominium sales and vacant land transfers.

    With a detailed analysis of sub-markets, she reported that Montauk “blows away the competition” with a 171-percent jump in the number of houses — from 7 to 19 — sold in the second quarter of this year as opposed to last year’s.

    The median house sale price there dropped with the surge in activity — from two sales to nine in the $500,000 to $999,000 range.

    “We’re so busy it’s unbelievable,” confirmed Mary Ann Peluso at Atlantic Beach Realty in Montauk, where she said she barely had time to chat because so many people were in the office. “Rentals are better than ever, and sales are very strong,” she said, adding that that could lead to an even stronger third quarter in 2010.

    Ms. Desiderio said that sales in Sag Harbor Village were “severely off” in the second quarter of 2009, while there were impressive gains in 2010 that made Sag Harbor’s sales statistics “more in line with a usual quarter.” With a dozen houses sold there, the total sales volume skyrocketed from $4.4 million to $19.1 million, or by 350 percent.

    Over all, Ms. Desiderio reported that sales more than doubled from Westhampton Beach to Montauk — by 119 percent — and that the sales volume doubled as well, by 103 percent. The median price, she said, remained fairly stable, dropping less than 3 percent.

    George Simpson, an owner of Suffolk Research Services of Southampton, performs a quarter-to-quarter comparison in his market reports, which indicated that the median price and total dollar figure dipped slightly since the first quarter of 2010. However, the number of units sold went up from 548 to 636.

    Mr. Simpson, who reports on the towns of East Hampton, Southampton, Riverhead, Southold, and Shelter Island, said he believes the market turned around in the second quarter of 2009, and that it steadily improved through the first quarter of 2010 before dropping off in this most recent quarter.

    The improvements over the same time last year, however, are indisputable. In East Hampton Town, he reported $226 million worth of real estate sold, or 159 units, as opposed to $107 million, or 65 units, sold in the second quarter last year. The median price in the town dropped slightly, by 2.6 percent, from $950,000 to $925,000.