Sales of existing US homes rose more than expected in April as homebuyers rushed to meet a federal tax credit deadline and the economy showed signs of recovery, an industry group said Monday. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said sales of existing homes increased 7.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million units in April, from an upwardly revised 5.36 million in March. The jump in sales exceeded the consensus analyst forecast of 5.65 million units and accelerated from a 7.0 percent increase in March. Existing-home sales were up 22.8 percent from April 2009, NAR said in a statement. Analysts had expected sales last month to show continued improvement in the ailing housing sector -- the epicenter of the financial crisis that triggered global recession -- on the back of government incentives. President Barack Obama's administration extended a tax-break program for first- time homebuyers to April 30, and expanded it to include certain homeowners. Contracts had to be signed by the deadline. 'The upswing in April existing-home sales was expected because of the tax-credit inducement, and no doubt there will be some temporary fallback in the months immediately after it expires,' Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in the statement. But Yun pointed out there were other factors supporting the market and luring buyers of existing single-family homes, townhomes and condominium and cooperative units. 'For people who were on the sidelines, there's been a return of buyer confidence with stabilizing home prices, an improving economy and mortgage interest rates that remain historically low,' he said. The number of existing homes for sale at the end of April rose 11.5 percent to 4.04 million. Unsold inventory was 2.7 percent above April 2009, but remains 11.6 percent below the record of 4.58 million in July 2008, NAR said. At the current pace of sales, it would take 8.4 months to exhaust the supply, the NAR said, slightly longer than the March rate of 8.1 months. The national median price for existing homes was 173,100 dollars in April, up 4.0 percent from a year ago. Sales of distressed homes ticked down to 33 percent of all sales last month, compared with 35 percent in March. 'Although inventory levels remain above normal and much of the gain last month was seasonal, the housing price correction appears essentially over,' Yun said, adding that a majority of the markets had seen price gains. By region, the Northeast led the improvement, with sales surging 21.1 percent in April, ahead of a 9.9 percent rise in the Midwest and an 8.6 percent gain in the South. The West, hard-hit by severe slumps in Nevada and California, remained a bleak spot with sales down 6.2 percent. Some analysts predicted slow progress in the existing-home market, by far the largest share of US housing, after a sales falloff following the expiration of government incentives. 'We should expect that sales will fall fairly sharply over the next couple of months and only after that adjustment will we get any decent picture of the market,' said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors. 'I believe the housing market will slowly and steadily improve over the second half of the year as extremely low mortgage rates, modestly improving credit availability and job gains convince people to buy.' Thomas Julien, US economist at Natixis, pointed out that the government's report on April new-home sales, due out Wednesday, would be more useful in gauging the strength of the housing recovery. The Commerce Department's sales data will provide a 'more up-to-date picture of the demand for homes as, contrary to the existing-home sales, they are taken into account as soon as the sale contract is signed.' 