Fewer Americans signed contracts to purchase homes in November, as the real estate market appears to have cooled after sales gains for much of 2015.
The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its seasonally-adjusted pending home sales index fell 0.9% to 106.9 last month. It was the lowest reading in 10 months. Still, the index has risen 2.7% from a year ago.
Pending sales are a barometer of future purchases. A lag of a month or two usually exists between a contract and a completed sale.
Realtors said last week that sales of existing homes tumbled 10.5% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million. The decrease largely stemmed from the introduction new mortgage rules that increased the amount of time needed to complete a sale.
Yet home sales are on track to rise roughly 5% for all of 2015 to 5.25 million, a figure 25% below the bubble-era sales of 7.1 million in 2005.
Related Stories
