Sales of new homes in the United States continue getting better, while sales of existing ones have dipped just slightly.

The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday said new homes sales increased 1.5% in March to an annual rate of 417,000. The level is 18.5% higher from the same time a year ago but is below January’s level of 445,000, the best pace since January 2008.

Many economist say despite things not being quite as good in March as they were in January, there is good evidence the home building and sales market is slowly recovering thanks to near record low mortgage rates.

A separate report released Monday shows existing home sales fell 0.6% in March from the month before to a rate of 4.92 million.

Analysts say the report from the National Association of Realtors shows the reason for the downturn was due to a lack of supply, rather than a fewer buyers.