On the heels of last week’s news that existing home sales in the United States climbed in the month of October, the U.S. Commerce Department has announced that new home sales rose, too.

According to the Commerce Department, sales of new homes rose 1.3 percent in October to an annual rate of 307,000. That’s still well below the 700,000 or so rate that economists view as the sign of a healthy economy, but the housing industry is still showing signs of life.

The median price for a new home in the U.S. dropped to the lowest level in a year, $202,300, but the fact that sales volume of both new and existing homes rose as median prices fell suggests that affordability is becoming more of a factor for home buyers.

In fact, new home sales were up almost 9 percent compared to October of last year.