For the second month in a row, Houston saw a jump in year-over-year housing sales. Does that signal the market is on the rebound? Some signs indicate yes, while others say maybe not yet. 'Overall, the interest is above what it has been in years past,' said Stephanie Edwards-Musa, a real estate agent who works in The Woodlands and surrounding areas. Houston-area home sales for October jumped 13.8 percent over a year ago. That's because the lingering effects of Hurricane Ike depressed sales last October and this year's federal tax credit for housing boosted sales. The increase marked the second straight month where the number of transactions rose, according to a monthly housing report released Thursday by the Houston Association of Realtors. In September, single-family home sales spiked 31 percent largely an aberration caused by a big drop in sales after last year's hurricane. Despite some positive signs, the Houston property market is a mixed bag. While real estate agents have been reporting increased activity, some homeowners still can't sell. Brian Stutt thought he'd make a quick sale on his four-bedroom house with a pool in Southampton Place, a subdivision of affluent homeowners near Rice University. He listed the house at $750,000, a price he felt was below market value for the neighborhood, where the median price per square foot last year was $287.90. Three months and one price cut later, it still hasn't sold. 'I'm very surprised where we are right now,' said Stutt, 60. 'I didn't foresee this coming.' The high end of the market, however, has taken a significant hit. Wealthy would-be buyers put home buying on hold after last year's stock market declines and mortgage tightening. Builders who put up multimillion-dollar homes at the peak of the market have had to cut their prices or nervously hold on until the economy improves. The median price for a home in the MLS area that includes Southampton was $637,500, down 12 percent from last October. Price increases Still, many parts of town saw price increases. At $149,000, the October single-family home median price the figure at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less rose 5 percent from the same month last year. In The Woodlands, Edwards-Musa said inventory is low for homes priced below $250,000. For that price range, 'it's very much a seller's market,' she said. With the federal homebuyer tax credit, first-time buyers have helped deplete some of the lower-priced inventory. Realtors sold 4,834 homes last month, according to the association, which tracks transactions through the Multiple Listing Service. Now that the tax credit has been extended through April and expanded to include move-up buyers, agents are even more encouraged. 'Many Houston Realtors reported that the first-time homebuyer tax credit was extremely effective at drawing consumers to the marketplace, and we believe momentum will build with the federal government's extended and expanded incentive program,' Vicki Fullerton, the association's chair, said in the report. The numbers of sales expected this month signal another increase is possible. October's month-end pending sales those listings expected to close within the next 30 days totaled 3,673, which was 2.6 percent higher than last year. Nervous potential buyers But winter is typically a slow time for home sales. And with consumers still worried about their jobs and the overall economy, nothing is certain. The market's direction will depend largely on employment, Jim Gaines, an economist with the Texas A&M Real Estate Center, said earlier this month. 'When people are nervous about their jobs or they can't get a job or their job is a part-time or lower-paying job, then that tends to cut them out of the homebuying market,' he said. nancy.sarnoff@chron.com 