Charlotte-area home sales posted big gains in July from the year before, though other data released Tuesday reveal mixed results for the local housing market.

About 2,170 houses, townhouses and condos sold in the Charlotte region in July, up nearly 10 percent from July 2010, according to the report from the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association. But the improvement was inconsistent: Home sales were down 7 percent from June, the data show.

Meanwhile, pending sales - signed contracts that haven't yet closed, a good measure of current housing activity - jumped 17 percent in July from last year.

But pending sales slid 12 percent from June, according to the report, compiled using the Realtor association's Carolina Multiple Listing Services Inc., which accounts for nearly all sales in the Charlotte area.

"It has been the craziest real estate cycle I've seen in my life," said Laurie Knudsen, association president and Realtor with Helen Adams Realty. "But I do think we've hit bottom and we have stabilized."

The month-to-month drops don't necessarily come as a surprise, said Charlotte mortgage loan officer Bill McConnell of Element Funding. Most families buying homes decide to do so before July and August, when kids are heading back to school.

In addition, the year-over-year improvement is a good sign, given the boost home sales saw last year in response to the government's first-time homebuyer tax credits, he said.

"I think the fact that July 2011's closings compare favorably to last July's, which were artificially inflated by the tax credit, says something positive about the market," McConnell said.

Closings and pending sales have ticked upward in recent months, partly because of the typical springtime boost and partly because foreclosures and short sales are beginning to be absorbed around the region.

The Charlotte area's distressed housing inventory has fallen for the seventh straight month, the Realtor association reported. Twenty percent of new listings were distressed in July, compared with 25 percent the year before. Over the same period, the share of closed sales that were lender-mediated fell to 26 percent from 36 percent.

Despite the improvement, though, home prices remain weak.

The average selling price in the Charlotte region in July was $213,354, down about 2 percent from July 2010 and about 1 percent from June, the report said. The median sales price, $163,500, was up slightly, climbing 3 percent from July 2010 and 4 percent from June.

In July 2007, by comparison, the average selling price in the Charlotte region was $239,696.

The latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, released in late July, showed home prices in the Charlotte area climbed in May from the month before but remained down from the previous year, a sign that the improvement might be related to seasonal fluctuations rather than economic recovery.

Real estate experts say prices could remain weak for years because of still-excessive inventories of foreclosed homes and buyers' continued difficulty securing financing.

Adding to the uncertainty are the U.S. credit downgrade and big stock market swings, but Knudsen doesn't expect much of an effect on the local housing market. She hopes for a strong fall and said record-low interest rates continue to make it a good time to buy.

"We've been fortunate that we haven't seen the high highs and the low lows, even though we suffered through the recession," she said.