Pending Sales of U.S. Homes Unexpectedly Fell 1.1% in October

Contracts to purchase previously owned homes unexpectedly dropped in October as tighter credit and weak wage gains held back would-be buyers.

The pending home sales index declined 1.1 percent after a 0.6 percent increase in September that was larger than initially reported, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for the index to rise 0.5 percent, with estimates ranging from a decline of 1.3 percent to an advance of 2 percent.