The number of homes sold in Douglas County climbed 28 percent in September compared with a year earlier, led by surging sales in Baldwin and Eudora and a double-digit boost in Lawrence.

The county recorded 161 sales of single-family homes last month, up from 126 in September 2004, according to a new sales report from the Douglas County Appraiser’s Office. Lawrence’s 104 sales were up from 92 a year ago.

But Realtors don’t expect the surge to last for long.

With prices for gasoline and natural gas on the rise, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita fueling economic uncertainty, the number of homes going under contract in Lawrence already has dropped to nearly half the record level that had been reached in June, said Larry Northrop, a director for the Lawrence Board of Realtors.

“Real estate functions like Wall Street,” said Northrop, a Realtor for Realty Executives Hedges Real Estate in Lawrence. “People make a change when there’s an opportunity. When things scare people – like interest rates, like the hurricanes, like gas prices – people tend to be happy with what they have and stay in their own home. :

“When people have less things to worry about that are outside their control, maybe they’ll be more interested in creating a higher standard of living and move into a bigger house.”

Sales in Baldwin and Eudora spiked last month, according to the county report. Baldwin recorded 15 sales in September, up from four a year earlier; Eudora had 20 sales, up from eight in September 2004.

Average prices paid for homes also increased in each of the communities tracked by the appraiser’s office. Lawrence’s average sale price in September was $210,324, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier.

But the average price for the entire county actually decreased, according to the report.

The average sale in the county was $194,767 last month, down 1.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the appraiser’s office. The average decreased because of increased sales in lower-priced areas of the county, such as Baldwin, Eudora and Lecompton.

The September report follows up on already-strong results from a month earlier.

In August the county recorded 235 sales, which was up 21 percent from a year earlier. Prices also were on the rise: August’s countywide average of $192,306 was up 3.7 percent from a year earlier.

The last two months have pushed the county’s sales pace ahead of last year’s. Through September, buyers had purchased 1,723 homes in the county, up 2.3 percent from the first nine months of 2004.

But the pace for Lawrence still lags. There have been 1,324 sales in the city through September, down 2.4 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Lawrence’s Multiple Listing Service currently has 379 homes listed for sale in town, Northrop said. The median price – at which half of the homes are listed for more and half are listed for less – is $209,900.

Of particular interest, Northrop said: Of the 118 homes on the list that are considered new construction, 57 are listed for more than $300,000.

So far this year, he said, only 39 new homes have sold in town for more than $300,000.

“That’s over a year’s worth of inventory,” Northrop said. “If I was in the market for new construction that’s over $300,000, I’d be out shopping.”