The National Association of Home Builders said the report was good news.

The number of new single-family homes for sale dropped to 297,000 in April, the U.S. government reported recently.

That number is the lowest reported since April 2001 and the second straight month of decline in new-home inventories. Seasonally adjusted annual new-home sales now sit at 352,000, officials added.

The National Association of Home Builders said the report was good news.

"The fact that the new-homes inventory is now below the 300,000 mark shows that builders have made substantial progress in winnowing down their backlogs to a much more comfortable level," said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a home builder from Tulsa, Okla.

Association chief economist David Crowe said it might be a sign of a recovery.

"This continued reduction in the new-homes inventory helps bring supply in line with demand, which is an important step toward the market's recovery,” Crowe said. “We can expect the pace of new home sales to bounce along the bottom a bit before picking back up towards the end of this quarter.”