The trade group said on Tuesday its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell 4 per cent to 82.3 from a downwardly revised October reading of 85.7 in October.

That's worse than the reading of 88 that economists expected, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

The reading, which was down 5.3 per cent from November 2007, was the lowest since in the eight-year history of the index, beating the previous record low of 83 set in March 2008. -- AP