GOSHEN – The February home sales lull struck the Mid-Hudson last month with a 15 percent drop in closed home sales in Orange County and a 14 percent drop in Rockland County. Those figures are year over year compared to February 2009.

Year to date closed sales were down eight percent in Orange County and seven percent in Rockland, according to Greater Hudson Valley MLS.

Orange County Board of Realtors Executive Director Ann Garti said the federal tax credit was initially set to expire last November, which could have led to the early 2010 low sales numbers.

The federal tax credit was extended through the end of April. “What we will be seeing in March and April again is kind of an uptick in activity because of the tax credit that now people, I think people believe, and correctly so, there will be no additional extensions of,” she said.

Condo and townhouse sales fell in February in Orange County by 35 percent, but they rose in Rockland County by four percent.