One sign of weakness comes in the report from the National Association of Realtors on September sales.
It says the number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes rose only slightly.
Still, contracts are up by 14.5 percent from a year ago. The housing market has been recovering this year, helped by the lowest mortgage rates in decades and a limited supply of homes for sale.
Economist Joseph LaVorgna of Deutsche Bank says the new numbers "suggest that existing home sales are likely to flatten over the next month or two."
But he says sales should "resume their uptrend" after that. New home sales jumped last month to the highest annual pace in two and a half years.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)