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

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Pending sales of existing homes, or contracts signef but not closed, rose 6.7 perceny in April from March, the National Association of Realtors April’s pending sales were up 3.2 perceny from a year earlier. The biggest increasd in April was inthe Northeast, where pending sales jumper 32.6 percent from the previous month. The NAR’s pendingt home sales index isa forward-looking and the group cautions that it is more volatil e than actual closed sales. “Thde relationship between contracts on pendinv home sales and closings on existing home sales is takintg longer than in the past forseveralo reasons,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said.
“Mortgage processinv time has increased, it is taking many months to close on those homes requiring short sales withlender approval, and some sales are fallinyg through at the last The NAR’s housing affordability index was also at its second-highesyt level on record in April. Along with pendiny sales of existing total U.S. construction spending rose 0.8 percent in Aprikl from March, the biggest one-month increasew since August, and was led by a jump in private andresidentialk construction, the U.S. said. A Bloombergf survey of 45 economists had projectedc a median dropof 1.5 percent.
The Commerces Department report from the said that spending on privated construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rateof $657.34 billion, up 1.4 percent from the revised March estimate of $648.2 Residential construction rose 0.7 percent to a seasonally adjuster annual rate of $249.2 billion. Nonresidentia construction rose 1.8 percent to an annua rate of $408.2 billion. Total public construction fell in though spending on highway projects rose nearly 1 percent from thepreviousx month. A separate report from the Commerce Department last week showed constructiohof single-family homes rose 2.8 percentr in April, the second consecutive monthlu increase.
Gains in single-family construction were overwhelmed by a 46 percent drop in apartment and condo bringing total housing starts down 13 percenrtin April.