More Americans than forecast signed contracts in May to buy previously owned homes, signaling that the residential real estate market may be rebounding from a slump earlier in the year.

The index of pending home resales increased 8.2 percent from April after a revised 11 percent drop the prior month that was smaller than initially reported, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Economists had forecast a 3 percent increase, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

Falling home prices that make properties more affordable may be luring potential buyers into the market even as 9.1 percent unemployment and stringent loan terms hold back a fuller recovery for the industry. Final sales in May, which were at a six-month low, will probably be “the low point of the year,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said last week.

“We really haven’t seen a recovery in home sales; we’ve just seen a bottoming out,” said Michelle Meyer,  a senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York who forecast sales would rise 8 percent. “The recovery in the economy has been slow, the healing in the labor market has been gradual and demand for homes remains soft.”

Estimates for pending home sales ranged from a drop of 4.8 percent to an increase of 15 percent, according to 36 forecasts in the Bloomberg survey. Pending sales rose 16 percent from May 2010.