The turnaround in the metropolitan area’s housing market continues to benefit home sellers in Johnson County, according to new data from the County Economic Research Institute.

The economic group in its latest monthly report showed large increases in home sales and average sale prices for single-family homes in December.

And in a measurement of residential building activity, construction permits for single-family homes also climbed in December.

Sellers appear to be the main beneficiary of the improved housing market.

According to the county data, 689 existing and new homes were sold in the final month of 2012. That was up 29 percent from December 2011. Of those December 2012 sales, 580 involved existing homes.

For all of 2012, home sales in Johnson County increased 25 percent from 2011.

Sale prices for new and existing homes also continued to climb in December to an average of $247,000. That was up nearly 22 percent from December the previous year.

Finally, the economic research organization reported that 123 permits for single-family residential construction were issued in December, up 69 percent from December 2011. No multifamily construction permits were issued in December.

Though the housing market made steady progress in 2012, the numbers are still well below the peak years of 2007 and 2008, before the recession took its toll.

In other economic data, Johnson County ended 2012 with an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent. That compared with a 6.4 percent jobless rate for the Kansas City area and a 5.3 percent unemployment rate for all of Kansas.