Rob Hulse is counting on Lawrence’s residential real estate market getting off to a healthy start this year, as builders finish up new homes for the spring season and interest rates continue to hang near 6 percent.

Hulse, president of the Lawrence Board of Realtors, expects Lawrence’s continued strength as a consistent market to carry through 2006.

“It’s poised to be another good year for Lawrence: We’re never bad, but we’re generally good,” said Hulse, in his 11th year as a Realtor at Stephens Real Estate. “It’s a very constant and very safe market. I don’t see any reason why that will change.”

Builders got off to a slow start in 2005, he said, which contributed to a slight drop in home sales for the year. The Douglas County Appraiser’s Office reports that there were 1,581 single-family homes sold in Lawrence last year, down 1.8 percent from a year earlier.

But prices continued to climb, according to the report. The average price paid for a Lawrence home in 2005 was $190,591, up just more than $10,000, or 5.6 percent, from a year earlier.

The average price for a home sold through the Realtors’ Multiple Listing Service was even higher in Lawrence: $203,600. Hulse acknowledges that affordability issues might have squeezed some potential buyers out of the Lawrence market.

Baldwin, meanwhile, picked up some of the slack. Sales were up 39 percent in Baldwin, where the average price for a home was $165,562.