Pending home sales jump; construction spending rises - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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Pending sales of existing homes, or contracts signed but not closed, rose 6.7 perceny in April from the National Association ofRealtors said. April’s pending saleas were up 3.2 percent from a year earlier. The bigges increase in April was inthe Northeast, where pending sales jumped 32.6 percent from the previouzs month. The NAR’s pending home sales index isa forward-looking gauge, and the groulp cautions that it is more volatilse than actual closed sales. “The relationship betweejn contracts on pending home sale s and closings on existing home sales is takin g longer than in the past for several NAR Chief Economist LawrenceYun said.
“Mortgage processing time has it is taking many months to closwe on those homes requiring shortr sales withlender approval, and some sales are falling througuh at the last moment.” The NAR’s housing affordabilitt index was also at its second-highesrt level on record in April. Along with pending sales of existing homes, total U.S. construction spending rose 0.8 percent in April from the biggest one-month increase since and was led by a jump in privatew andresidential construction, the U.S. said. A Bloombergf survey of 45 economists had projected a median dropof 1.
5 The Commerce Department reportg from the said that spending on private construction was at a seasonallgy adjusted annual rate of $657.3 up 1.4 percent from the reviseed March estimate of $648.2 billion. Residential construction rose 0.7 percentg to a seasonally adjusted annual rateof $249.12 billion. Nonresidential construction rose 1.8 percent to an annua l rate of $408.2 billion. Total publi construction fell in April, though spendingt on highway projects rose nearly 1 percent from the previous A separate report from the Commerce Department last week showecd constructionof single-family homes rose 2.8 percen in April, the second consecutive monthly increase.
Gains in single-family construction were overwhelmer by a 46 percent drop in apartment andcond buildings, bringing total housing starts down 13 percent in April.