Mumbai, Jan. 31 -- After reporting four straight monthly increases by U.S. pending home sales, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Thursday showing pending home sales unexpectedly pulled back sharply in the month of December.
NAR said its pending home sales index plunged by 5.5 percent to 74.2 in December after jumping by 1.6 percent to a downwardly revised 78.5 in November.
Economists had expected pending home sales to rise by 0.4 percent compared to the 2.2 percent surge originally reported for the previous month.
A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
The sharp pullback by pending home sales reflected decrease...