There are some glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel for the struggling Eastside real estate market.

Figures released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NMLS), a service that compiles and promotes real estate listings from about 28,000 realtors in the Northwest, pending sales around Western Washington for the month of March reached the highest level in six months.

Pending sales, which refers to offers made and accepted, but not yet closed, rose 25 percent from February to 5,701 transactions, the highest number since last September.

Looking back a year ago, however, it is clear that the real estate market is reflecting a broader economic contraction.

In the area described by NMLS as “East of Lake Sammamish,” closed sales in March fell 45 percent from the same month in 2008, from 161 closed sales to 87 this year.

That matches a trend that has seen closed sales fall 44 percent on the Eastside in the past 12 months.

Pending sales east of Lake Sammamish paint only a slightly better picture, down 35 percent in March 2009 from the same period in 2008.

This figure is significantly lower than the Eastside average – an 18 percent drop.

Sellers are still optimistic however, with listings showing only a slight decrease in Sammamish, and a slight increase on the Eastside overall.

The average sale price east of the lake fell 17 percent, from $510,000 in March 2008 to $419,000 in March of this year.

The market in Issaquah and Sammamish has been under the spotlight recently, following an article in the Wall Street Journal about the listing of Seattle Mariners baseball star Ichiro Suzuki’s home in Issaquah.

Currently for sale with Rick Miner of Coldwell Banker at $1.75 million, the house was once listed, by a different agent, at $3.2 million.

A number of local real estate experts have described that price, listed by Windermere Real Estate, as being unrealistic.

That was back in April of 2007, recognized as being the last of the strong months before the beginning of a downturn in the real estate market.

It is understood that Ichiro bought the house for $1.9 million in 2001, and that he has moved into a house closer to Lake Sammamish.

NWMLS director Dick Beeson said that there was a growing awareness and use of the $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers, but that he was less certain of the impact of federal programs for helping distressed homeowners.

“The congressional stimulus package for housing refinances to help distressed homeowners by reducing their mortgage interest rates has not really benefited as many as was hoped,” he said. “Few, if any, banks seem willing to participate.”

J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, believes more can be done at the national level to stimulate the housing market.

In testimony before a U.S. Senate committee recently he urged support for a number of measures proposed by the National Association of Realtors, including allowing a home buyer to use tax credit funds toward a down payment, and encouraging the Federal Housing Administration to use its authority to increase loan limits in communities that have exceptionally high home prices.

“All in all, we are seeing generally increased interest at all levels of the market, high and low end,” Beeson said. “We may not soon see 2005 or 2006 levels of sales numbers, but we’re holding our own and progressing steadily in the right direction.”