Homebuilder confidence climbed one point off an all-time low in February the National Association of Home Builders said on Tuesday.

The NAHB says its housing market inched up a bit to nine from the January reading. This shows improved traffic by prospective buyers and helped boost builders' confidence in on the sales outlook.

The NAHB's confidence index rose to nine in February but still less than less than half of the reading of 20 posted a year ago.

Index reading higher than 50 indicates builders’ positive sentiment about the market. This was the fourth month that the index reading was in a single digit.

The report covered 421 residential developers nationwide in a survey, monitoring and measuring builders' perceptions of market conditions.

Builders' measure of current sales conditions and buyer traffic climbed one point to seven from January while sales expectations for the next six months are at a record low of 15 this month falling two points from January reading.

Builders are hoping that the new government stimulus will bring help the market cope up with the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression.