Sales in the US of previously owned homes were up by 2.4 per cent in May, The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said.

This projects to annial rate of 4.77 million homes units, upfrom April's 4.66 million units.

The NAR said the annual sales rate in May was 3.6 per cent lower than the for the same month in 2008.

Secondary home sales were up by 3.9 per cent in the Northeast and 9.0 per cent in the Midwest. Sales were flat in the South, and fell 0.9 per cent in the West.

Inventories of existing homes for sale fell 3.5 per cent to 3.8 million homes, down from 3.9 million in April. At the current pace of sales, there is almost 10 months of supply of secondary homes. Inventories are down 15.3 per cent from a year earlier.