US pending home sales rise more than expected in May
WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) - Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes increased more than expected in May, but higher mortgage rates remain a constraint for buyers.
The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday its Pending Home Sales Index, based on signed contracts, increased 1.8% to 72.6 last month. Sales rose in all four regions. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast contracts, which become sales after a month or two, would edge up 0.1%.
Pending home sales advanced 1.1% from a year earlier.
"Consistent job gains and rising wages are modestly helping the housing market, said Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist. "However, mortgage rate fluctuations are the primary driver of homebuying decisions and impact housing affordability more than wage gains."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
37 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: fate of president's ‘big, beautiful bill' in doubt amid Senate vote
US senators on Saturday were scrambling to open debate on Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill, which is key to the president's second-term agenda. The bill cannot advance to the House until a debate is held and a final vote on the legislation passes the Senate. But Republicans have been divided by the controversial bill, with some rejecting the proposal to cut welfare programmes in order to cover tax breaks, and others demanding deeper cuts. After the procedural vote to move to a floor debate on the measure opened on Saturday evening, several Republican had voted against it, putting pressure on the remaining holdouts to toe the party line. Meanwhile, the tech billionaire Elon Musk has again voiced criticism of bill, describing it as 'utterly insane and destructive'. Here are the key stories at a glance: A vote in the US Senate, on whether or not to open debate on Donald Trump's package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds, formally titled 'the One Big Beautiful Bill Act', stalled for hours on Saturday, as Republicans inclined to vote against the measure were pressured to support it. Soon after the vote opened at 7.30pm local time in Washington, three Republican senators joined all 47 Democrats to vote against the bill, meaning the remaining 50 Republican senators all needed to vote in favor to give vice-president JD Vance the chance to cast the tie-breaking vote and clear the procedural hurdle. Read the full story The billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk on Saturday criticized the latest version of Donald Trump's sprawling tax and spending bill, calling it 'utterly insane and destructive'. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!' Musk wrote on Saturday. Read the full story The Democratic former Minnesota state house speaker Melissa Hortman was honored for her legislative accomplishments and her humanity during a funeral on Saturday that was attended by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The former president and vice-president were joined by more than 1,000 other mourners. Read the full story Eric Trump has hinted that he or another of the Trump family could run for president when his father's second term in the White House comes to an end. Eric, who is co-executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, said, the road to the White House 'would be an easy one' if he decided to follow in his father's footsteps. Read the full story Police in southern California arrested a man suspected of posing as a federal immigration officer this week, the latest in a series of such arrests, as masked, plainclothes immigration agents are deployed nationwide to meet the Trump administration's mass deportation targets. Read the full story The son of an American citizen and military veteran – but who has no citizenship to any country – was deported from the US to Jamaica in late May. Jermaine Thomas's deportation, recently reported on by the Austin Chronicle, is one of a growing number of immigration cases involving military service members' relatives or even veterans themselves who have been ensnared in the Trump administration's mass deportation program. Read the full story Two men face spending their lives in prison after a federal judge sentenced them for their roles in the deaths of 53 people found dead in an abandoned tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022. The sudden loss of key US satellite data could send hurricane forecasting back 'decades', scientists say. Mark Zuckerberg's secret list of top AI talent to poach has the tech world atwitter. Catching up? Here's what happened on 27 June 2025.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's Big Beautiful Bill on the brink as JD Vance is rushed to Capitol to whip rebel senators
Three Republican holdouts are standing in the way of President Donald Trump 's historic Big Beautiful Bill - prompting the administration to deploy JD Vance to the Capitol to win over voters. The Senate is locked in a tense vote tonight over Trump's landmark legislation after the administration cut several deals and made amendments to the mammoth package in an effort to get it greenlit. As the vote, which was expected to last just 15 minutes, drags into a third hour, Vice President JD Vance has arrived at the Capitol and could be required to cast the tie-breaking vote. Trump needs the votes of conservative Republicans Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming to get the numbers he needs to proceed. The tense deliberation sparked an outburst from Trump, targeting Republican Senator Thom Tillis after he formally railed against his party to vote 'No.' Trump wrote on Truth Social: 'He loves China made windmills that will cost a fortune, ruin the landscape, and produce the most expensive Energy on Earth. 'I can't believe that the Great People of North Carolina, a State that I love and won all three times ... allow one of their Senators to GRANDSTAND in order to get some publicity for himself.' Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky have also already voted against it. Former First Buddy Elon Musk savaged the amendments earlier on Saturday, warning: 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country.' 02:20 Trump goes apocalyptic at No voter Thom Tillis Trump slammed Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina in a furious Truth Social post on Saturday night after he voted down his Big Beautiful Bill. 'Looks like Senator Thom Tillis, as usual, wants to tell the Nation that he's giving them a 68% Tax Increase, as opposed to the Biggest Tax Cut in American History,' he wrote. 'He loves China made windmills that will cost a fortune, ruin the landscape, and produce the most expensive Energy on Earth. 'I can't believe that the Great People of North Carolina, a State that I love and won all three times, and a State that I just brought back with money, blood, sweat, and tears, from the recent tragic floods, when Sleepy Joe Biden let them DROWN, right up until the end of that Administration, without doing anything. 'I was given an A+ Rating for the job we did in bringing it back, and Tillis, despite being a Republican, was MISSING IN ACTION. 'North Carolina will not allow one of their Senators to GRANDSTAND in order to get some publicity for himself, for a possible, but very difficult Re-Election. 'America wants Reduced Taxes, including NO TAX ON TIPS, NO TAX ON OVERTIME, AND NO TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY, Interest Deductions on Cars, Border Security, a Strong Military, and a Bill which is GREAT for our Farmers, Manufacturers and, Employment, in general. 'Thom Tillis is making a BIG MISTAKE for America, and the Wonderful People of North Carolina!' 02:18 Who has already voted No and who are the hold outs? Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have all voted against progressing Trump's Big Beautiful Bill to be debated. Tillis earlier said: 'I did my homework on behalf of North Carolinians, and I cannot support this bill in its current form. 'It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities. This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population. 'We can and must do better than this.' Meanwhile, Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Rick Scott of Florida are still holding out on delivering their final decision. They are believed to vote as a bloc. Trump can only afford to lose three votes, meaning if the trio of holdout senators vote against the bill, it will be - at least temporarily - over. If the trio vote in favor, Vance will be the deciding vote.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Elon Musk calls Trump's big bill ‘utterly insane and destructive' as senate debates
The billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk on Saturday criticized the latest version of Donald Trump's sprawling tax and spending bill, calling it 'utterly insane and destructive. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!' Musk wrote on Saturday as the Senate was scheduled to call a vote to open debate on the nearly 1,000-page bill. 'Utterly insane and destructive,' Musk added. 'It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' Passing the package, Musk said, would be 'political suicide for the Republican Party.' Musk's comment reopens a recent fiery conflict between the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and the administration he recently left. They also represent yet another headache for Republican Senate leaders who have spent the weekend working overtime to get the legislation through their chamber so it can pass by Trump's Fourth of July deadline. Earlier this month, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO also came out against the House version of Trump's 'big, beautiful bill', denouncing that proposal as a 'disgusting abomination'. 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it, he wrote at the time. Musk's forceful denouncement of Trump's spending plans triggered a deep and public rift between the billionaire and the president, though Musk in recent weeks has been working to mend relations. On Saturday, Musk posted a series of disparaging comments about the senate version of the bill, which argued the legislation would undermine US investments in renewable energy. Musk boosted several comments from Jesse Jenkins, a macro-scale energy systems engineer who teaches at Princeton. After Jenkins wrote, 'The energy provisions in the Republicans' One Big Horrible Bill are truly so bad! Who wants this? The country's automakers don't want it. Electric utilities don't want it. Data center developers don't want it. Manufacturers in energy intensive industries don't want it.' Musk replied: 'Good question. Who?' Musk's continued criticism of Trump's budget proposals comes as the bill faces a rocky path in the senate. Republicans are hoping to use their majorities to overcome Democratic opposition, but several Republican senators are concerned over provisions that would reduce spending on Medicaid and food stamps to help cover the cost of extending Trump's tax breaks. Meanwhile, fiscal conservatives are worried about the nation's debt are pushing for steeper cuts.
