The numbers: Pending-home sales ticked up 0.2% in November, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.
What happened: NAR's index of pending home sales tracks real-estate transactions in which a contract has been signed, but the deal hasn't closed.
November's increase missed the consensus forecast of a 0.5% monthly gain from economists surveyed by Econoday. The index reading was 109.5, where 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001. That is 0.8% higher than a year ago.
Read: Existing-home sales roar to the highest level since pre-bubble 2006
Big picture: The housing market's biggest headwind remains extremely lean levels of inventory available for sale. In November, NAR said there were 3.4 months' worth of homes for sale, the lowest on record back to 1999.
As NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said, "New buyers coming into the market are finding out quickly that their options are limited and competition is robust."
Yun is forecasting full-year 2017 existing-home sales of 5.54 million, only 1.7% higher than in 2016. And he expects the new tax law to crimp demand for housing next year - perhaps, he said, enough to dent prices.
Read: Why it's so hard to forecast home prices for 2018-and why that should worry you
Pending sales were mixed by region in November: The index for the Northeast rose 4.1%, and the index in the Midwest ticked up 0.4%. In the South, however, sales dipped 0.4% for the month, while the index covering the West slid 1.8%.
What experts are saying: "Today's result points to the risk of a decline in actual existing-home sales in December," wrote Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for MFR Inc.
"With that said, since 2016 there has been a greater than usual divergence between the pending and actual sales series, often sustained for months at a time. It is therefore impossible to say at the moment which indicator is flashing a more accurate picture of actual conditions in the existing home sales market, or if the truth lies somewhere between what the two are currently signaling."