Contract signings to purchase previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly fell in September by the most since the end of 2013, indicating the residential real estate market is cooling from its recent brisk pace.
An index of pending home sales dropped 2.3 percent in September after a 1.4 percent decline a month earlier, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. The decrease exceeded the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
