Your blogger is getting his numbers fix today. A flurry of January housing reports released today suggests that the 2012 market is off to a strong start. Across the state home sales were 6.4 percent higher than last year, and pending sales — an indicator of future closings – rose 14.5 percent, according to the Minnesota Association of Realtors.

Most promising, the median sale price of all homes that closed that month was down only .5 percent. That was the smallest decline in prices since the downturn began, and a sign that the double-digit price declines that have plagued the market are beginning to ease. The median price of all sales was $125,660.

Prices in the Twin Cities metro area are still falling at a healthy clip, according to the Residential Real Estate Index from the University of St. Thomas, which said that the median price of both foreclosures and traditional listings was down almost 7 percent. That report showed that the number of foreclosures and short sales that closed during was up, peaking at 55 percent of all deals. There were signs of promise across the country, as well. According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of single-family homes rose almost 4 percent to the highest level since May 2010.

We'll have a more complete story in the Thursday paper.