Pending home sales jump; construction spending rises - The Business Review (Albany):

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Pending sales of existint homes, or contracts signed but not closed, rose 6.7 percentf in April from March, the Nationak Association of Realtors said. April’se pending sales were up 3.2 percentf from a year earlier. The biggest increasde in April was inthe Northeast, where pending sales jumper 32.6 percent from the previous month. The NAR’s pending home sales index isa forward-looking gauge, and the group cautionss that it is more volatile than actua l closed sales. “The relationship between contracts on pending home salesa and closings on existing home sales is taking longert than in the past forseveralk reasons,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said.
“Mortgagre processing time has increased, it is taking many monthds to close on those homes requiringh short sales withlender approval, and some salews are falling through at the last The NAR’s housing affordability index was also at its second-highes level on record in Along with pending sales of existing homes, total U.S. constructiobn spending rose 0.8 percent in April from the biggest one-month increase sinces August, and was led by a jump in privatee andresidential construction, the U.S. A Bloomberg survey of 45 economists had projectexd a median dropof 1.5 percent.
The Commercde Department report from the said that spendinfg on private construction was at a seasonally adjustedd annual rateof $657.3 billion, up 1.4 percentg from the revised March estimate of $648.2 Residential construction rose 0.7 percent to a seasonallyt adjusted annual rate of $249.2 Nonresidential construction rose 1.8 percent to an annuak rate of $408.2 billion. Total public construction fellin April, though spendintg on highway projects rose nearly 1 percent from the previouse month. A separate report from the Commerce Departmentt last week showed constructionof single-familg homes rose 2.
8 percent in the second consecutive monthly Gains in single-family construction were overwhelme d by a 46 percent drop in apartment and condio buildings, bringing total housing starts down 13 percen t in April.