And now it is officially time to celebrate for the housing sector because once again, there has been a definite monthly rise in the sales of new residential properties. For the month of March, the U. S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have shared that there was a whopping 23.8% year-on-year rise in sales.

The sales recorded during the past month are also a good 26.9% above the February figure.

The sales during this year's March were 411,000 units more as compared to last year's March.

The definite and delightful improvements in the housing sector are being viewed by many as yet another sign of an improvement in the economy. The housing industry is one of the most important segments of the economy and a good indicator of the progress.

During recession and its lingering after-effects, the housing sector was one of the most hurt economic segments, and the Government had to introduce various stimulus measures to ensure that it does no sink completely, and many experts believe that it is because of those very measures that the sector is managing to do well.

The $8,000 first time home-buyer tax credit scheme, which was introduced by the Government to encourage people to purchase more and more residential properties despite the financial crunch, is to officially come to a close on Friday, April 20, 2010. Under the scheme, there is also a rebate of $6,500 for repeat buyers.

The main push, it seems, was given to the March sales by the fact that the scheme is about to come to an end. So maybe it would then be safe to estimate that the April sales would be up as well!