June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell for the first time in three days after new-home purchases in the U.S. dropped to a record low, signaling further economic weakening in the world's second-biggest consumer of the metal. Sales collapsed by a record 33 percent to an annual pace of 300,000 last month from April, less than the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the fewest since 1963, U.S. Commerce Department figures showed. Construction accounts for a quarter of copper demand, according to the Copper Development Association. "We are still trading on the back of the macroeconomic news coming out, and the U.S. economic data is showing a slowdown," Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London, said by telephone. Copper futures for September delivery fell 4.85 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $2.96.20 a pound at 10:52 a.m. on the Comex in New York. On the London Metal Exchange, the contract gained 3.8 percent in the previous two days. Copper for delivery in three months slipped 1.1 percent to $6,540 a metric ton, or $2.97 a pound. Purchases of existing houses, which make up about 90 percent of the U.S. market, slid 2.2 percent to a 5.66 million annual rate, the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday. Economists had predicted a gain. Comex prices will average $3.22 a pound this year, Morgan Stanley said today in a report, 3 percent below its prior estimate. The bank kept its 2011 forecast at $3.41. "Lingering growth concerns in Europe and China are likely to be a headwind for base metals" in the third quarter, Peter Richardson, Morgan Stanley's Melbourne-based chief metals economist, said in the report. China is the world's biggest metals user. Aluminum, nickel, lead and tin also fell on the LME. Zinc gained. --With assistance from Shobhana Chandra in Washington. Editors: Michael Arndt, Steve Stroth.

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