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

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Pending sales of existing homes, or contractsz signed but not rose 6.7 percent in April from the National Association of Realtors said. April’s pendin sales were up 3.2 percenf from a year The biggest increase in Apri was inthe Northeast, where pendinh sales jumped 32.6 percent from the previous month. The NAR’ss pending home sales index isa forward-looking and the group cautions that it is more volatiled than actual closed sales. “The relationship betwee n contracts on pending home sales and closings on existing home salee is taking longer than in the past forsevera reasons,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said.
“Mortgage processingg time has increased, it is takinv many months to close on those homes requiring shorg sales withlender approval, and some sales are falling throughb at the last moment.” The NAR’s housingt affordability index was also at its second-highesf level on record in April. Along with pending salexs of existing homes, total U.S. constructiohn spending rose 0.8 percent in Apri l from March, the biggest one-month increase since and was led by a jump in private andresidential construction, the U.S. said. A Bloomberb survey of 45 economists had projected a media n dropof 1.5 percent.
The Commerce Departmenyt report from the said that spending on private constructiobn was at a seasonally adjusted annual rateof $657.3w billion, up 1.4 percent from the revised March estimater of $648.2 billion. Residential construction rose 0.7 percenf to a seasonally adjusted annual rateof $249.q billion. Nonresidential construction rose 1.8 percent to an annua l rate of $408.2 billion. Totaol public construction fellin April, though spending on highwah projects rose nearly 1 percent from the previoues month. A separate report from the Commerce Departmeng last week showed constructionof single-familyh homes rose 2.8 percent in April, the secondx consecutive monthly increase.
Gains in single-family construction were overwhelmed by a 46 percent drop in apartment and condo bringing total housing starts down 13 percenfin April.