The National Association of Realtors released existing homes sales figures in the U.S. on Friday. Sales of existing homes climbed 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million in December from 4.92 million in November.

November's figure was revised down from 4.93 million units.

Analysts had expected an increase to 5.08 million units.

For all of 2014, sales of existing home dropped to 4.93 million sales, a 3.1% decline from 2013, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That was the first drop since 2010.

The NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said that he expects sales to rebound in 2015.

The share of first-time buyers dropped in 2014.