Year over year, the REBNY report found that the average Manhattan home sales price saw the steepest drop: 17% compared to Q3 2008. Brooklyn's average home sales prices dipped 5%; those for Queens and Staten Island both declined 6%.

The reports corroborated observations made by Pamela Liebman, president and CEO of the Corcoran Group, and vice chairman Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman at a forum sponsored by The Real Deal Wednesday night. "We're in a completely different place than we were last September or October," Liebman said, noting that her agents are busy once again, although prices are lower.

Lenz opined Wednesday night that condo prices have hit bottom, while co-op prices have yet to do so. Her firm's Manhattan sales report states, "This surge in the number of sales does not appear to indicate a housing market 'bottom,' but provides further evidence that the housing market has 'turned the corner.'"

Providing still more evidence, Fitch Ratings said Thursday that it would revise its housing metrics upward for this year and 2010, "the first positive adjustments in housing metrics in approximately three and a half years," managing director and lead US homebuilding analyst Bob Curran says in a release.

The ratings agency noted that single-family housing starts and new home sales have improved in recent months, as have new home inventories, home pricing and consumer and builder sentiment. However, Curran says, "During the first 12-15 months off the bottom, the housing recovery may appear jaw-toothed as substantial foreclosures now in the pipeline surface as distressed sales, while meaningful new foreclosures arise from Alt-A and option adjustable-rate mortgage resets."