“Buyers are seeing inventory move, and that gets them moving. Interesting how that happens,” said a Summit, N.J.-based respondent who sees improvement in a market where many homes are located near commuter train lines to midtown Manhattan. “Yes, there are actually bidding wars again on well-priced, staged homes in great locations.”

Among 225 readers responding to the survey from March 23 to April 1, 48.9 percent said housing markets in their area were improving, 27.1 percent said they were stabilizing, and 12.9 percent characterized them as worsening.