It seems that the housing market showed signs of recovery as sales of newly constructed homes jumped almost 24% last month from a record low in May.

According to the Department of Commerce, new home sales surged 23.6% to an annual rate of 330,000, exceeding analysts’ expectation of 310,000. In addition, May sales were revised down sharply from 300,000 to 267,000, the lowest since the government started keeping records in 1963.

The latest development offered industry experts and market analysts a glimmer of hope for the full recovery of the housing market. “We’re seeing a genuine, albeit very modest recovery in the housing industry. I think we’re going to inch up gradually,” Woodley Park Research chief economist Richard DeKaser said.

Despite the notable increase in new home sales, however, the average selling price of newly constructed residential real estate declined by 1.4% in June to $213,400. The figure fell by 0.6% from a year ago. In addition, there is still a huge number of properties in the market that remain unsold. According to experts, it would take about 7.6 months to sell off the inventory of homes at the current sales pace.

Analysts warned that the country’s high unemployment rate and sluggish consumer confidence will continue to drag down overall home sales and hamper with the recovery of the real estate market. “The housing market is very sensitive to consumer confidence, and that in turn is very closely tied to the labor market,” DeKaser said.

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