The Big Apple appears to be leading the rebound in U.S. home sales.

Sales of apartments and co-op units in Manhattan jumped between 46 and 69 percent in the third quarter from the second, according to several reports cited by The Associated Press.

Nationally, sales rose for the seventh straight month in August, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Buyers in New York and other cities are finding attractive the combination of low home prices and rock-bottom mortgage rates. In addition, first-time homebuyers receive a tax credit up to $8,000 this year.

Many people stayed away from home purchases early this year amid concern about the recession, Pamela Liebman, CEO of The Corcoran Group real estate firm, told AP.

But now they’re more optimistic.

"As soon as values fell enough, it drove buyers back in with renewed confidence," she said.

Manhattan sales levels are on a tear, but prices aren’t. The median price dipped 2 percent in the third quarter from the second and dropped between 8 and 18 percent from a year earlier.

"This is all good news, but it doesn't suggest we're at the bottom" for prices, Jonathan Miller, head of real estate firm Miller Samuel, told AP.

The price picture is better nationally, with the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index rising 1.2 percent in July from June.

Home prices represent “a major turning point for the economy,” Brian Bethune, chief financial economist at IHS Global Insight, told Bloomberg.