New Delhi, July 20 -- WASHINGTON - The American housing market produced another month of readings pointing in the wrong direction for buyers in June, with the National Association of Realtors reporting a 5.4 percent decline in its pending home sales index, the forward-looking gauge that measures signed contracts on existing homes and typically leads closings by one to two months.

The decline signals that the pace of existing home sales will remain subdued through the late summer months. The buyers who might have expected relief from the affordability squeeze that has built since 2022 found little of it. Mortgage rates, which the NAR's chief economist Lawrence Yun flagged as the primary driver of the pullback, remain elevated enough to pr...