The housing market is still struggling, but low mortgage rates and other incentives prompted first-time buyers to start buying in March, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors.

Existing-home sales fell of 3% to an annual rate of 4.57 million in March, which was a bigger drop than expected, but first-time buyers made up 53% of the sales.

The national median existing-home price was $175,200 in March, up 4.2% from $168,200 in February, but down more than 12% from March 2008, when it was $200,100.

Still, at least one expert found the report encouraging.

“This fits with an idea of stabilization of housing demand,” Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Holdings, told Bloomberg News. “We’ve seen housing affordability go up across the country. The bad news has been diminishing.”

And “the worst may be over” in parts of the West, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in the report. Sales have doubled in parts of California and in Las Vegas, areas of the country that have suffered the most during the housing crunch.

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