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If January is any indication of what’s to come for the housing market within the city of Portland, 2011 could be a very long year for residential brokers.

January marked a 12-month low for Portland home sales, according by Nick Krautter, principal broker with the Portland Central office of Keller Williams Realty. Only 351 homes sold during the month of January, down from 575 homes sold in December, the data showed.

Krautter had predicted at the end of December that January home sales would be around 500 and was shocked to see the actual numbers.

For February, Krautter expects about 400 homes to be sold in Portland. Average prices generally start to drop after the summer peak, bottoming out in winter. With prices bottoming out, he expects investors to bolster the market, bringing home sales up steadily through the summer.

Home sales peaked last May at just under 900 homes sold because of the looming expiration of federally subsidized home buyer tax credits. Sales then dropped drastically each month until October when 400 homes were sold and rose over the next two months until another sharp dip last month.