Home sales in Covington jumped in May, resulting in the highest number of sales since December of 2007.

In May, 16 new homes and 25 existing homes sold bringing in a total of $50,955 in Real Estate Excise Tax — a one-time tax when a home is sold that goes to the city. Those numbers don’t include commercial properties or apartments.

“Last year we had a pretty good year but we had a big commercial sale,” said Rob Hendrickson, finance director for the city of Covington.

Hendrickson explained that while sales of commercial properties, such as last year’s, give a big boost the excise tax total, they aren’t sales that happen very often.

“The base is a lot more solid (this year),” Hendrickson said. “We’re about even (with) last year, even without the commercial (sales).”

According to Hendrickson, the city primarily uses the funds collected through the Real Estate Excise Tax to pay the city’s debt from the 2007 transportation bonds.

“When they went out for the bond we anticipated the REET would cover the bond,” Hendrickson said.

When home sales slowed in 2008 that meant the city was bringing in less in Real Estate Excise Tax.

“It (Real Estate Excise Tax) is a revenue stream that’s very hard to predict and it depends on the economy,” Hendrickson said. “Since the recession hit we’ve been struggling with that revenue stream.”

Hendrickson explained that the city used other extra funds to cover the difference when the Real Estate Excise Tax numbers weren’t high enough to completely cover the debt from the transportation bonds. Hendrickson the city never had to make cuts to cover the bonds, but as a result of shifting funds couldn’t afford to do anything extra, either.

“It really never took anything away from other sources,” Hendrickson said. “We never had to reduce anything but we couldn’t add anything.”

In neighboring Maple Valley Real Estate Excise Tax numbers have been improving as well.

According to Maple Valley Finance Director Shawn Hunstock in 2012 Real Estate Excise Tax was up 41 percent, not including the sale of two large commercial properties and this year it has been up another 6 percent. Hunstock noted that the slower growth in Maple Valley this year is due in large part to the city approaching build-out for residential homes.