There are real-estate agents who make money when a home is bought or sold. And there is Molly Harris-Whitted, who earns her keep when owners hold — leasing out property or delaying the sale for a better price.

And this is Whitted's kind of market.

"We have seen an unbelievable increase in new properties, and it's still happening," said Whitted, a former city councilor who now works in property management with Valdez & Associates on Henry Lynch Road.

Whitted made her comments at the quarterly meeting of the Santa Fe Association of Realtors, where second-quarter data from property sales were released. Though prices are steady and closed sales on the same pace as 2010, the biggest change is in inventory, which continues to fall.

The number of new homes listed for sale in the second quarter of 2011 stood at 839, a 24 percent decline from 2010. The total inventory of single-family homes for sale in Santa Fe County is now down 33 percent from this time in 2009.

Whitted said all the property-management firms in Santa Fe have seen more activity. There was a surge last year when many owners could not sell and rushed to find tenants to avoid foreclosure. But the trend has continued as many of those owners assess their options again — and tenants in those properties consider their options, some moving ahead with home purchases and others signing new leases.

Lois Sury, an agent with Sotheby's, said the fact that some people have withdrawn homes from the market means, for the first time in a while, that Santa Fe is seeing "a more balanced market."

Though it's still a buyer's market. Sury said the numbers are moving. "No longer in the buyer's favor, no longer in the seller's favor — that's what we're beginning to see here," Sury said.

The combined city/county sales in the second quarter stood at 314 single-family homes, almost identical to last year. But there is no federal tax credit for homebuyers this year, so Donna Reynolds, association director, sees the numbers as a good sign.

"The market is stabilizing and improving without the federal stimulus," she said.

The decline in foreclosures is also stabilizing the market, according to a report from RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosed properties. Nationwide, foreclosure activity was down 29 percent in the first six months of 2011, and June was the ninth-straight month in which foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis.

In New Mexico, all foreclosure activity is down 28 percent from a year ago.

James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said the decline is not all good news.

"Processing and procedural delays are pushing foreclosures further and further out," he said in a statement. "We estimate that as many as 1 million foreclosure actions that should have taken place in 2011 will now happen in 2012, or perhaps even later."

Other highlights from the second-quarter data out of Santa Fe:

• The median single-family sales price in the city stood at $309,000, an increase of 7.3 percent.

• The median city/county combined price for a single-family home stood at $365,000, up 5.8 percent.

• The median price of a home in Eldorado stood at $308,000, a decline of 9 percent.

• The total sales volume for all single-family homes increased to $151 million, up 7.9 percent in the quarter.

Contact Bruce Krasnow at brucek@sfnewmexican.com.

New real-estate listings in Santa Fe County, year to date:

2009: 2,020

2010: 1,858 (-8 percent)

2011: 1,447 (-22 percent)

SOURCE: SANTA FE ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS