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

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Pending sales of existing homes, or contractsz signed but not closed, rose 6.7 percent in April from the National Association ofRealtors April’s pending sales were up 3.2 percent from a year The biggest increase in April was in the where pending sales jumped 32.6 percent from the previousw month. The NAR’s pending home sale s index isa forward-looking gauge, and the grouop cautions that it is more volatile than actua l closed sales. “The relationship between contracts on pendingh home sales and closings on existinfg home sales is taking longer than in the past forsevera reasons,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrencwe Yun said.
“Mortgage processingg time has increased, it is taking many monthd to close on those homes requiring short sales withlende approval, and some sales are fallingg through at the last moment.” The NAR’zs housing affordability index was also at its second-highest leve l on record in April. Along with pending salesx of existing homes, total U.S. construction spending rose 0.8 perceng in April from March, the biggestf one-month increase since August, and was led by a jump in privatee andresidential construction, the U.S. A Bloomberg survey of 45 economists had projected a median dropof 1.
5 The Commerce Department report from the said that spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $657.e billion, up 1.4 percent from the revisesd March estimate of $648.2 billion. Residential constructionn rose 0.7 percent to a seasonallt adjusted annual rateof $249.2 Nonresidential construction rose 1.8 percent to an annuap rate of $408.2 billion. Total publi c construction fellin April, though spending on highwaty projects rose nearly 1 percengt from the previous month. A separate report from the Commerce Departmen t last week showed constructionof single-familuy homes rose 2.8 percent in the second consecutive monthly increase.
Gainsd in single-family construction were overwhelmed by a 46 perceng drop in apartment andcondo buildings, bringing total housing starta down 13 percent in