Sales of new homes nationwide have seen some improvement recently, and it has home builders feeling optimistic for the first time since January, especially in the Western U.S.

Home builder confidence across the nation hit a six-month high in July, a sign of an improving job market and home-buyer demand, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index on Wednesday.

For the second consecutive month, the most confident group of builders were those operating in the West.

The index doesn’t give a state-by-state breakdown, but separate studies by Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business and the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona show the Western-region builder optimism isn’t coming from Arizona.

Unlike some of the national housing figures, the ASU and home builder association research shows the Valley's new home market has actually been doing pretty poorly this year as buyer demand has been on a steady decline for almost a year.

During the first half of the year, new home sales Valley were down consistently year-over-year and there were also 13 percent fewer new home permits issued.