Home sales continued to decline in the triangle in May compared to last year, but home builders are optimistic.

Home sales in the Triangle were down 32.2 percent for the month of May, according to the Triangle Multiple Listing Service.

It also took about 21.7 percent longer to sell a home this year than it did last year, but home builders are concentrating on another falling number: inventory.

"I would say the worst case scenario is that we're at the bottom," Tim Minton, executive vice-president of the Raleigh-Wake County Home Builders Association, said. "The great news is, we're still selling homes."

There are still a lot of homes on the market, but a funny thing is happening to that endless supply of homes for sale around the triangle.

It's drying up as builders stop building.

"What we're seeing now is a stable market," Minton said. "People are used to where we are right now. People have adjusted to where we are right now and so you're not gonna see any major swings, one way or the other."

According to the Triangle MLS, the number of new listings on the market has dropped 22 percent from last year.

That's allowing realtors to clear out that old inventory that's been around for a while, but some realtors are skeptical to say that this is the bottom of the housing market.

"I think the reality of what we're dealing with right now is the seasonal uptick of buyers that we normally see in the spring," Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors President John Wood said. "So that is making the market feel better and we're seeing some stabilization."

Builders and realtors say another thing helping to sell homes is the price.

While the selling prices of homes are falling, the value of the homes in wake county are still appreciating.

The real question remains whether people will still be willing to buy in the months ahead.

"As housing sales start to increase, you're going to start seeing housing prices increase also," Minton said. "So when people are trying to figure out where's that point to start buying, it's not gonna get any better than it is right now."

Hopefully, the economy won't get any worse.