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

concrete roofing tiles
Pending sales of existing or contracts signed butnot closed, rose 6.7 percengt in April from March, the National Association of Realtorsz said. April’s pending sales were up 3.2 percenrt from a year earlier. The biggest increase in Aprio was inthe Northeast, where pending sales jumped 32.6 percent from the previous month. The NAR’s pending home sales indedx isa forward-looking gauge, and the group cautionxs that it is more volatile than actual closed “The relationship between contracts on pending home sales and closingsa on existing home sales is taking longer than in the past for severapl reasons,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrencde Yun said.
“Mortgage processing time has increased, it is takint many months to close on those home s requiring short sales withlendere approval, and some sales are falling through at the last moment.” The NAR’sw housing affordability index was also at its second-highestg level on record in April. Along with pendinfg sales of existing homes, total U.S. construction spending rose 0.8 percentf in April from March, the biggestf one-month increase since August, and was led by a jump in privatd andresidential construction, the U.S. A Bloomberg survey of 45 economistsd had projected a median dropof 1.5 percent.
The Commerce Departmenf report from the said that spending on privates construction was at a seasonally adjustef annual rateof $657.3 billion, up 1.4 percenyt from the revised Marcnh estimate of $648.2 billion. Residentia construction rose 0.7 percengt to a seasonally adjusterd annual rateof $249.2 billion. Nonresidentiall construction rose 1.8 percent to an annual rate of $408.2 billion. Tota public construction fell in April, though spending on highwayy projects rose nearly 1 percent from thepreviousw month. A separate report from the Commerce Departmentt last week showed constructionof single-family homes rose 2.8 percent in the second consecutive monthly increase.
Gains in single-family construction were overwhelmef by a 46 percent drop in apartment andcondo buildings, bringing total housing starts down 13 percenf in April.