by Calculated Risk on 7/03/2007 10:27:00 AM

From Bloomberg: U.S. Pending Sales of Existing Homes Drop 3.5 Percent

Americans unexpectedly signed the fewest contracts to buy previously owned homes in more than five years in May as buyers waited for lower prices and lenders made it harder to get mortgages.

The index of signed purchase agreements, or pending home resales, dropped 3.5 percent to 97.7 from a revised 101.2 in April, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington.
...
Economists expected pending sales to rise 0.5 percent, from an originally reported decline of 3.2 percent, according to the median of 27 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Estimates ranged from a drop of 2.5 percent to an increase of 2 percent.

Today's report showed that the May reading was the lowest level since September 2001, when the economy was in the midst of the last recession. April pending home resales were revised to a decline of 3.5 percent.

I usually don't follow the pending home sales index, but I wonder why was this "unexpected"? And this was for May. There was another downturn in the housing market in June.

Here is the NAR release.