Finally, some good news after almost nine years! Home sales in various parts of the United States are rising, slowly, but steadily.  Reports indicate that property sales rate reported in May was highest since 2007. Buyers kind of snapped up properties as soon as they were listed for sale.

Month of May saw drastic improvements

Data released by National Association of Realtors suggests that existing homes sales saw a rise of 1.8 percent in May this year.

Experts believe that lower unemployment rate and lower mortgage rates are some of the prime reasons behind the hike in sales percentage. Property rates are rising slowly because of low inventory and good demand from people who wish to buy homes.

Freddie Mac (Mortgage buyer) suggests that average rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgage showed a reduction of 3.54 percent compared to four percent reported during the same period (May) last year.  So, low mortgage rate has also played in important role in increasing demand.

Trulia is one of America's most popular online rear estate companies. Its chief economist Ralph McLaughlin recently interacted with journalists and shared his opinion about indicators that show improvement in real estate market. He pointed out that housing market is recovering slowly, but it is not able to gain momentum, probably because of inventory woes (limited inventory).

Houses stayed in the market for more than 40 days on an average until last year. But, in May, properties were sold within 32 days from the day they were listed for sale.

With such positivity in the market, more and more people are opting for a career in real estate, and they are taking various exams on a website called practice exam.

Midwest areas from the United States consist of affordable houses, and sales in these areas fell during May. But, house sales in West, South, and Northeastern part of the US experienced a rise in sales.  This shows that customers were looking for all sorts of properties except for affordable homes.

People are not willing to sell their properties yet

The point that needs to be noted is that increase in property prices has not influenced property owners to sell their houses yet. Experts believe that even in spite of hike in rates, people who have purchased their property before 2008 may not make much of profit as of now.  This may explain the fact that home listings have reduced by around 5.7 percent during May this year, compared to last year's data.

The story has not changed much, people in the US wish to buy their dream homes, but cannot do the same because of rising rent, students’ debt, and impact of the housing bubble in the mortgage industry.

Still, most of the buyers who purchased properties during May this year were reportedly the first time buyers.  Now, because of strong growth in sales, real estate firms are predicting three percent rise in property sales percentage compared to last year.

Data released by the Commerce Department shows that builders are not doing enough to solve supply related issues. They have increased their construction activities, but the focus seems more on high-end properties.