NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The residential real estate market picked up slightly in April, as increasingly affordable home prices drew in hesitant buyers.

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales ticked up 2.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million units compared to the revised rate of 4.55 million in March.

The sales came in slightly ahead of expert forecasts of 4.66 million annual units, according to a consensus estimate of analysts compiled by Briefing.com, but are still off 3.5% from the 4.85 sold 12 months ago.

First-time homebuyers continued to drive sales, according to Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, but there was also a seasonal rise of repeat buyers.

"Most of the sales are taking place in lower price ranges and activity is beginning to pickup in the mid-price ranges, but high-end home sales remain sluggish," he said.

The median price of homes sold in April was just $170,200, a 15.4% year-over-year drop.

The slight sales increase failed to make a dent in the supply of homes on the market: Inventory rose to a 10.2 months supply from a 9.6 month in March. Much of that inventory jump was due to sellers putting more homes on the market for the spring selling season.

"There cannot be any true talk of a housing correction until we see unsold inventories in the 5-month range," said Bob Walters, the chief economist for Quicken Loans.