Pending Home Sales Plunge 16% in November

So much good news so little time.

Pending home sales unexpectedly plunged in November, according to a report issued Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors, a big correction after several months of positive gains for a closely-watched indicator of housing market activity.

According to the industry group, November pending home sales activity dropped by 16% to a reading of 96.0, compared with the previous month’s reading of 114.3. The drop was much larger than expected by Wall Street, which was looking for a dip of 2% for the indicator for November.

It was the largest drop, point-wise, since the industry group started the index in 2001, dragging the indicator to its lowest level since June.