The St. Louis home market seems to be going in two directions at once — rising sales, but weakening prices.

Statistics for St. Louis city and county, released last week, show sales up markedly since July. In November, for instance, 1,059 homes were sold compared with 913 in the same month in 2010.

But prices were down; with a median price of $114,900, compared with $123,625 a year earlier, according to the St. Louis Association of Realtors.

The same phenomenon appeared in July, August, September and October.

Real estate agents are unsure what is happening, or what it portends. Rising sales normally mean stronger prices.

"I think we should be happy just to see an increase in sales. I'm not sure we should be expecting higher prices yet," says Shawn Kelsey, who follows the statistics closely at Keller Williams Realty in Chesterfield.

The problem is more sellers than buyers, he says. At the current sales rate, it would take 7 months to sell all the homes on the market. That inventory would have to drop to five to six months for the market to be balanced.

It's still a buyer's market, he said.

Despite the recent pickup, sales this year remain weaker than in 2009, the depth of the Great Recession.

Glenn Vatterott, president of the Association of Realtors, thinks sales of distressed properties is weighing down the price statistics in St. Louis. Distressed properties are foreclosed homes and short-sales.

Figures from CoreLogic, a real estate tracking firm, show prices of distressed properties falling much faster than other homes in St. Louis. In October, for instance, home prices here were down 4.9 percent from a year earlier, but only 0.9 percent if distressed property is excluded.

A good sign: "There seem to be fewer distressed homes coming on the market than are going out," Vatterott said.

Home sales vary by season, so sales in one month are best compared with the same month a year earlier. Last year's comparisons were skewed by the federal first-time homebuyer program that gave subsidies of up to $8,000 to buyers. The program expired in July of last year, and it probably prompted some people to buy early in 2010 instead of later.

That might partly explain why sales looked stronger this summer, but perhaps not in the fall.

Across the nation, pending home sales in October were up 9 percent from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reported. Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said the effect of the homebuyers credit was well past by October and the jump in sales indicates real growth.

"This implies that something is brewing in the marketplace about the buyer wanting to get into the market," he said during a webcast on the association's website.

In St. Louis, sales were up 7 percent in October and 16 percent in November.

Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expect home prices nationally to begin to rise next year. But, by an eight-to-one ratio, they expect inflation to outpace home values for the next three years.

Meanwhile, new home construction continues to tumble, with single-family home permits down 22 percent this year on the Missouri side of the metro area.

"While the economic recovery has been sluggish, it continues to add jobs, a key driver for a housing market recovery. Historically low interest rates coupled with affordability make it one of the best times in history to buy a new home," said Gene Stumpf III, president of the Home Builders Association of St. Louis.