What a difference a year makes.

Last year at this time,  the Metro Vancouver housing market was  just beginning to emerge from one of the biggest slowdowns in years.

This February when the city was hosting the Winter Olympics, home sales in the  Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver  were up 67.1 percent over February 2009.

However, February 2010 sales figures were still 7.6 percent below the figure reached in February 2008, and 13.5 percent below the sales volume in February 2007.

Last month, there were 2,473 sales recorded. That's 28.6 percent higher than the 1,923 sales in January 2010.

The benchmark housing price for all residential properties in the REBGV was $581,911, which is 19.7 percent higher than the $484,054 recorded in February 2009.

There was a 17.6 percent increase in listings for residential properties in the REBGV in February 2010 compared to the same month a year ago.

The REBGV does not include Surrey and Langley, which are part of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.