U.S. home resales see surprise decline

Sales of existing U.S. homes logged their third straight monthly decline in April, according to data from the (U.S.) National Association of Realtors. In April, sale closings fell by 2.7 percent to an annualized pace of 5.85 million, the slowest since last June. The decrease took economists by surprise: in a Bloomberg survey, the average estimate was a rate of 6.07 million.