A survey suggests that the sales of pre-owned homes in US fell unexpectedly in May despite of tax credits designed to help the homebuyers.

The National Association of Retailers (NAR) has said that the sales have fallen down by 2.2% to 5.66 million dollars in the month of May after a surge in sales in April.

Experts have expected that sales figure to rise after the hike in April. But NAR says that the sales are still ok and strong and even 19% higher than a year ago.

According to the chief economist of NAR, Mr. Lawrence Yun the tax credits should continue in order to boost the sales in the next month. He has also added that the number of home sales in this month might be affected by the late mortgage deals. About 180,000 homebuyers may be able to finalize the deal by the end of June because of the delayed mortgage process. The average price of a home in US was 179,600 dollars in the month of May which was
2.6% higher than a year ago.

The homebuyers had signed a deal in the end of April to qualify for the tax credit but they have to wait until the end of June to finalize their deals.