By Kate Davidson

WASHINGTON--Pending home sales slipped in December in all regions of the country after a slight increase in November, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Here are highlights from the report:

-Pending home sales, contract signings for purchases of previously owned homes, fell 4.9% in December from November. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected a 1% rise.

-Pending sales were up 4.6% in December from a year earlier.

-Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, said low mortgage rates are expected to aid the housing sector for most of 2020, but low inventory will remain a challenge. "Due to the shortage of affordable homes, home sales growth will only rise by around 3%" this year, he said in a statement. "Still, national median home price growth is in no danger of falling due to inventory shortages and will rise by 4%."

-The housing market has stabilized since the middle of 2019 amid low interest rates and steady economic growth, following a slump that began late 2018. Sales of previously owned homes rose 10.8% in December from a year earlier, NAR said earlier this month.

Write to Kate Davidson at kate.davidson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2020 10:14 ET (15:14 GMT)