A luxury home builder's woes show rising fears of US slowdown

Seattle

WEALTHY buyers are pulling back from some of the most expensive housing markets in the US, the latest sign that sky-high prices and fears of a recession are weighing on a key sector of the economy.

Toll Brothers, the nation's largest publicly traded luxury-home builder, said this week that its purchase agreements fell 3 per cent from a year earlier, worse than a decline of less than one per cent that was expected by a Bloomberg survey of six analysts.

The company's orders in California, home to some of the priciest markets in the country, tumbled 36 per cent from a year earlier.

The shares were down 4.1 per cent to US$35.40 at 12.55pm New York time on Wednesday after earlier falling a…