Kim Prewitt never expected that buying her first house would happen so fast.

She spotted a real estate advertisement on television in February. Now only several weeks later, she's about to sign a contract to purchase a new Roanoke home.

There were none of the snags nor indecision that can slow a deal for Prewitt, a local resident who already is planning the garden that she wants to plant in her new back yard. The three-bedroom new house is what she calls the "most adorable cottage ever" in Southeast Roanoke, near Jackson Park.

A fixed interest rate of 6 percent on a 30-year mortgage was one of the main reasons that Prewitt, 41, decided to buy a house now.

"When is it going to get that low again?" she said. "Things can't stay this good forever. We all know that."

That kind of talk is music to the ears of real estate professionals, and many in the Roanoke Valley are touting low interest rates as they enter 2007. Despite the slower pace of new and existing home sales in 2006, real estate agents say, the low interest rates may combine with modestly pent-up demand to spark buyers.

The latest sales trends seem to justify at least a cautiously cheery outlook. Roanoke Valley home sales rose in February, for the second month in a row, compared with sales during these same months in 2006, according to the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors. The number of units sold was up 10 percent in 2007, compared with 2006. The sales volume rose 17 percent in 2007.

Nationally, existing home sales rose 3 percent in January, with the median home price at $210,600, according to the National Association of Realtors. The national figures for new home sales are released separately and aren't yet available for January. National February home sales aren't out yet. New home sales fell in 2006 by the largest number in 16 years, but they were up for a second straight month in December.

The telephone is a market gauge for local Realtor Karl Ford.

"It seemed like the end of last year was a little bit flatter. There weren't as many calls," said Ford of MKB Realtors. "Right now, my phone is ringing off the hook. At the last few open houses I've had, I've had really good turnouts."

The spring market likely is a factor in the upturn. Real estate specialists said warmer weather inspires people to buy new homes. It's traditionally one of the busiest sales periods of the year.

As for new home construction, sales activity at Fralin & Waldron, a Roanoke County homebuilder, recently has picked up after a slow period. But that's mainly because the builder sold out of all of its new home inventory at the end of last year, said Kathy Gentry, sales and marketing manager for the company.

People who are relocating to the Roanoke area for jobs, such as recent transfers from Texas and Northern Virginia, have continued to drive much of Fralin & Waldron's sales during the first part of 2007, Gentry added.

At least one relocating family has purchased a home in the company's new development in Roanoke County called Samuel's Gate. There, prices for houses start at $275,950.

Despite 2007's early glow, last year wasn't as bright for the Roanoke Valley real estate market, according to the RVAR.

The number of residential units sold was down 4.7 percent in 2006, at 5,556, compared with 2005 at 5,831. And the sales volume dropped about 1.75 percent in 2006, to $1.15 billion, compared with $1.18 billion in 2005.

The average price of a home, however, rose about 4.1 percent to $209,443 in 2006, from $201,185 in the year earlier.

The RVAR report covers Roanoke, Salem and Vinton, the counties of Roanoke, Botetourt and Craig, and parts of Bedford and Franklin counties.

Some local real estate agents said sales in 2006 appear slow when compared with the previous year because 2005 was one of the hottest years in real estate nationwide. Home prices skyrocketed, and buying activity accelerated nationally.

"2005 across the board was just a tremendous year," said Kathy Nunnally, a Realtor with RE/MAX Valley Realtors and president of the RVAR. "Obviously, the market is in the process of adjusting now."

Some adjustments locally may be the length of time that a house is on the market before it sells.

The average period a Roanoke Valley house spent on the market was the same in 2006 as in 2005, according to statistics from the Virginia Association of Realtors. In each year, the average time on the market was 67 days. That's short compared with other years.

In the 1990s, the average time on the market was between 90 to 100 days, said Jeff Reynolds, a branch manager with Long & Foster's South office in Roanoke County. But in 2004, 2005 and some of 2006, that time period often was shorter.

"A great home would sell between a day or two or seven, and in a lot of cases, there were multiple offers," Reynolds said. "We're not going to see that anymore. We're back to a regular market."

In Virginia, the number of residential units sold dropped 18 percent in 2006 compared with 2005, according to the VAR.

And in January, statewide sales were down slightly at 6,586 units sold, comparedwith 6,753 in 2006.

For Richmond's market, residential sales were up slightly in January at 837 from 800 last January, based on VAR data. In Charlottesville, the number of units sold increased about 5 percent to 283 compared with 267 in January 2006.

Don't look for Roanoke area real estate agents to hand off the same sales incentives as have been offered in larger cities, where examples include the promise of a new car to would-be buyers.

There's still evidence locally of some incentives for buying a home, as was the case with William Nicely, who purchased a house in December in Roanoke County. The seller paid half of the closing costs and threw in a free hot tub that had not yet been installed.

Nicely, however, said the hot tub was not his only reason for choosing the ranch-style house with two bedrooms.

"I was looking for a well-kept house that didn't need a lot of work."