June existing home sales fall 5.1%

U.S. existing home sales fell less sharply than expected to a three-month low in June, though the supply of unsold homes rose to the highest in almost a year, an industry group said Thursday.

Sales fell 5.1 percent to an annual unit rate of 5.37 million units, the National Association of Realtors said. Economists polled by Reuters had expected an 8.1 percent decline to a 5.18 million pace in June.

There were about 3.99 million homes for sale at the end of June, a level that would take about 8.9 months to deplete at the current sales pace. That's the highest monthly supply since August 2009.