Has housing entered a new phase?

Sales hit a fresh milestone in April, a possible sign that housing is no longer in a recovery, but just working through some growing pains.

The combined rate of existing- and new-home sales broke the 6 million level in April for the first time in nine years.

Also read:New-home sales roar back in April

That’s nowhere near the 8.5 million pace sales hit at the height of mortgage mania in 2005. But they ran at an average of about 6.1 million from 1999-2001, a period many housing analysts consider a more normal market.

It’s been a long road back to that combined pace.

Many factors have weighed on sales of existing homes, including severe distress for many homeowners. Even now, the legacy of the bubble bursting weighs on many. There were 6.7 million seriously underwater properties in the first quarter, meaning the homeowner owed at least 25% more than the market value of the home, RealtyTrac reported earlier this month. That’s nearly half the 12.8 million at the worst of the crisis, in 2012, but it’s still high.

The share of sales that were distressed in the first quarter – bank-owned, short, or in-foreclosure sales – was 18.2%, according to RealtyTrac.

The scars of the overall market crisis are weighing on individual homeowners, even those who aren’t in distress. Research has showed that homeowners underestimate how much equity they have in their homes, making them more reluctant to sell.

And in recent months, as more evidence has emerged that it’s a seller’s market with extremely lean inventory, many would-be sellers have decided to upgrade their homes rather than search for another home.

Supply of existing homes became so tight earlier this year that the National Association of Realtors asked homebuilders for help.

“It’s time for home builders to double their focus on constructing single-family homes,” the Realtors wrote in a release in March. “Supply and demand imbalances and unhealthy levels of price growth in several metro areas have made buying an affordable home an onerous task for far too many first-time buyers and middle-class families.”

But builders faced their own headwinds. About one-quarter of construction jobs were lost to the housing downturn, and it’s been hard to lure many workers back at prices construction companies can afford.

Builders are also contending with another scarce commodity. Some 64% of builders said the supply of lots in their market was “low” or “very low,” the most since the National Association of Home Builders began tracking in the late 1990s.

So what’s next?

Builder confidence has been steady at a strong level for many months, at a level NAHB calls consistent with slow and steady growth. As Trulia chief economist Ralph McLaughlin wrote in a note Tuesday morning, the big jump in April sales will only boost sentiment, which will hopefully increase housing starts.