Pending U.S. home sales hit highest level since 2006

Americans signed more contracts to buy homes in April for the third straight month, driving pending home sales to the highest level in more than a decade.

The National Assn. of Realtors said Thursday that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index surged 5.1% last month to 116.3, the highest since 117.4 in February 2006.

The April numbers are the latest example of good news for the housing industry, which is in the middle of the spring home-buying season. Pending home sales are up 4.6% from a year earlier.

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Sales climbed 11.4% last month in the West, 6.8% in the South and 1.2% in the Northeast. In the Midwest, sales slipped 0.6%.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors group, credited long-term mortgage rates that remain below 4% and steady job growth, which gives people the incomes and confidence to buy homes.

Pending sales contracts are a barometer of future purchases. A sale is typically completed a month or two after a contract is signed.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that new home sales shot up 16.6% last month to a seasonally adjusted rate of 619,000, the most since January 2008. Sales of existing homes, which make up 90% of the housing market, rose in April for a second straight month to an annual pace of 5.45 million.

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