In New England, the start of spring generally marks the opening of the busiest season for real estate agents and a time when sellers like to put their properties on the market. This three-bedroom Cape-style home in Wakefield is currently available for sale with an asking price of $424,900.

Following a dismal winter, Bay State Realtors are looking at the start of the spring season with fresh optimism, hoping that buyer and seller activity will revive after months in a deep freeze.

The snowy weather has had a significant impact on the market, as sellers delayed putting their homes on the market and buyers put off their home searches, according to local Realtors.

Sales in some communities in central Massachusetts were off by as much as 20 percent this winter compared to the same period last year, according to one local Realtor.

But the arrival of warmer weather and the start of spring typically jumpstarts the market as more homes are listed for sale and buyer interest picks up.

“In the last few weeks, I’ve seen the market pick up in both buyers calling for appointments and sellers calling for comparative market analyses for their properties,” said Maggie Tomkiewicz, broker-owner of m. macdonald real estate in Dartmouth and president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

Realtors predict that prices and sales may moderate this year, with buyers having a larger selection of homes to choose from. But some say it’s difficult to forecast the spring market, the ultimate success of which depends on how much buyer demand has built up after the winter lull.

Diane Davidson, a Realtor with Hammond GMAC Real Estate in Boston, said the blizzard in January that dumped up to 2 feet of snow in the Boston area was especially hard on the market. Open houses throughout the city were cancelled and business during the subsequent two weeks was much slower than usual.

Davidson said requests for home showings in the weeks after the storm were half what she would normally expect, and half of those appointments were canceled.

“People didn’t want to come into the city. They didn’t want to deal with parking,” she said.

But Davidson said that with the advent of spring, traffic at open houses has already started to increase and properties that have been on the market for a while are starting to move.

Sales of single-family homes and condos statewide were down during the first three months of the year compared to a year earlier. There were 9,636 unit sales from January through March 22 of this year, according to the MLS Property Information Network. In contrast, 11,796 single-family homes and condos were sold during the entire first quarter of 2004, a total that is unlikely to be matched this year even when the complete first-quarter sales figures are in.

The number of days it took to sell homes remained stable, however. Single-family homes took an average of 70 days to sell during those winter months, the same as last year, while condos were on the market an average of 61 days before selling during that period, only a day more than in the prior year, according to the multiple listing service.

‘Realistic’ Pricing

Several Realtors said there are a greater number of homes listed for sale, which would benefit buyers, and force sellers and their agents to be much more careful about pricing properties.

According to MAR, active listings for detached single-family homes remained largely unchanged over the past 12 months, while listings for condos increased 13.2 percent over the same period.

Detached single-family home listings slid 0.3 percent from 25,646 homes for sale in February 2004 to 25,558 listings this February. That translates into about an 11-month inventory supply. According to MAR, supply did rise steadily over the last month, increasing 5 percent from January when there were 24,331 homes listed for sale, or a nine-month supply.

Meanwhile, condo listings jumped from 10,234 in February 2004 to 11,584 in February of this year. But in terms of supply, the inventory was lower because of an increase in condo sales volume that outstripped the pace of new listings. The inventory fell to about 10 months’ worth of supply in February compared to a 12.7-month supply during the same month the prior year.

One factor that is likely to influence the spring real estate market is interest rates. Richard Cahill, president of Jack Conway & Co., said if interest rates remain below 7 percent the market will continue to be “viable.”

Interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages are likely to rise toward the end of this year, according to some predictions. Concerns about inflation expressed last week as the Federal Reserve raised the benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter point to 2.75 percent could lead to a rise in long-term bond rates – to which mortgage rates are tied – say economists.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in Massachusetts was 6.05 percent for the week ending March 18, according to MAR, which cited information from HSH Assoc., a New Jersey mortgage tracking firm. The rate is similar to last April’s.

Cahill, who said he remembers when interest rates were as high as 19 percent, is not too concerned about a potential increase in the rates.

While the inventory of for-sale homes has grown and buyers have a wider selection of properties from which to choose, Cahill does not really see the market favoring either buyers or sellers. “It seems to be balancing out at the moment,” he said.

Unlike Cahill, however, Cape Cod Realtor Pat Thatcher-Hill said the Cape region is definitely experiencing a “highly competitive” buyer’s market.

An agent with RE/MAX Classic in Falmouth, Thatcher-Hill said she has seen a significant number of price adjustments ranging anywhere from 1 percent to 10 percent, and the inventory of for-sale homes is going up. In Falmouth alone, there are about 275 homes listed for sale, she said.

“Because there is a lot of inventory, we have to be very, very realistic about pricing,” said Thatcher-Hill. “The Cape is a destination area. People choose to come to the Cape. They can choose to go someplace else, and that’s another reason why we have to be very realistic of our pricing.”

David Hurley, president of the Eastern Middlesex Association of Realtors, said his region has not yet seen a “spring uptick” in the number of home listings.

“Our actual inventory has remained consistent,” he said. The Eastern Middlesex region is just starting to see more open houses and new listings come on the market, said Hurley, broker-owner of Boardwalk Real Estate in Reading.

“We anticipate a moderate [price] appreciation for the year,” he said.

The Greater Worcester region is experiencing what Daniel J. Robertson refers to as a “leveling off” in the market. In some communities in Worcester County, particularly communities with a higher concentration of homes priced between $500,000 and $1 million, unit sales in the winter were off by as much as 20 percent from a year ago, according to Robertson.

“Fewer buyers ventured out this winter due to a wicked winter that dropped a lot of snow,” said Robertson, an agent in the Westborough office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage who is also the president-elect of the Worcester Regional Association of Realtors. “Towns that have fewer entry-level homes are experiencing a leveling off [in sales activity].”

Meanwhile, prices for entry-level homes and condos are increasing, mostly due to demand from empty nesters and aging baby boomers who want to downsize, said Robertson.

“In Worcester County, we have many old mill conversions and affordable developments, which have added to the much-needed inventory,” he said.

“As long as interest rates remain low and inventory increases at all levels for the year 2005, the spring market has the potential to be yet another record-breaker,” he said.

Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.