According to a Thursday announcement by the National Association of Realtors, the existing home sales in the US jumped 3.6 percent in June to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units, from the May figures of 4.77-million-unit annualized rate.

Sustained by the sale of low-cost and foreclosed houses, the rise in home sales - which marked the third monthly rise - is a small yet optimistic trend, depicting that the four-year slump in the housing sector, that gave impetus to the financial downturn, is likely coming to an end.

Economists opine that the stabilization in the housing sector is being stimulated by factors like tax incentives; low borrowing costs; and foreclosure-induced fall in prices. They further say that due to a record drop in household wealth – partly because of plunging property values - and increasing unemployment rates, recovery in housing and the economy has been prolonged.

Nonetheless, the reported improvements in home sales figures corroborate this week’s remarks by the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke that the nastiest housing downturn in nearly eighty years is apparently bottoming.  

Stuart Hoffman, Chief economist at Pittsburg’s PNC Financial Services Group, expects sales to rise to a 4.9 million annual rate. Expressing optimism that housing sector is taking a turn for the better, Hoffman said: “We have finally bottomed out. Improved affordability is stalemating the drag from higher unemployment.”