Existing home sales in the Northeast and across the country fell in May compared to the same time last year when sales were surging to beat the deadline to qualify for homebuyer tax credits, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

In the Northeast, existing home sales fell 13.5 percent to 770,000 in May compared to the same time last year. The median price for homes in the Northeast increased 6.1 percent to $241,500 compared to the same time a year ago.

Existing home sales across the nation fell 15.3 percent in May year-over-year to 4.81 million, according to a statement. The national median existing home price was $166,500 in May, a 4.6 percent drop compared to May 2010.

"Spiking gasoline prices along with widespread severe weather hurt house shopping in April, leading to soft figures for actual closings in May," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. "Current housing market activity indicates a very slow pace of broader economic activity, but recent reversals in oil prices are likely to mitigate the impact going forward. The pace of sales activity in the second half of the year is expected to be stronger than the first half, and will be much stronger than the second half of last year."

He added, "Even with recent economic softness, this is a disappointing performance with home sales being held back by overly restrictive loan underwriting standards. There’s been a pendulum swing from very loose standards which led to the housing boom to unnecessarily restrictive practices as an overreaction to the housing correction – this overreaction is clearly holding back the recovery."