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Home sales within the city of Portland improved slightly in February after dropping off sharply the month before.

There were 362 homes sold in Portland in the month of February, according to statistics released this week by the Portland Central office of Keller Williams Realty. The number is up slightly from January, which saw 344 homes sold, but down significantly from the 575 homes sold throughout the month of December 2010, the statistics showed.

Other than the month of January, home sales were at their lowest monthly total in the past 12 months at the end of February.

It seemed as if Portland’s housing market had bottomed out in October when home sales had remained constant at 400 sales a month for nearly three straight months. But after a two-month rise in sales following October, they fell off sharply in January.

Nick Krautter, principal broker with the Portland Central office, had predicted 400 sales in February and is now predicting 450 sales in March.

“Seasonally speaking, average prices generally start to drop after the summer peak, bottoming out in winter,” Krautter said. “(So) I expect investors to bolster the market through the winter.

“Yet 2010 shows the market bottomed out in fall and started to rise in winter. It will be interesting to see if the positive trend continues into the spring.”