Completed home sales in the Baltimore area shot up 14 percent in February compared with the same month last year, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors reported yesterday.

At the same time, pending home sales increased 2 percent for the month, the realty board said. (Pending sales are those under contract that have yet to go to settlement.)

"The market is launching into the spring buying season," said Nancy C. Hubble, president of the realty board.

Michael Conte, director of regional economic studies at the University of Baltimore, said the settled sales figures for February reflect a genuine revival in the local housing market that began in the fourth quarter of last year.

In February a total of 1,062 houses were sold. The pending sales figure for the month was 1,359.

The figures are for sales of new and existing homes as reporteto the Central Maryland Multiple Listing Service.

The data include sales in Baltimore City and Baltimore, Harford, Howard and Carroll counties.