NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index dropped a notch in June to 110.9 from May’s reading of 111.3. According to a recent survey, 44 percent of respondents said they believe it will be “a long time” before the U.S. economy recovers. And U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew said the Obama administration won’t negotiate with Congress about raising the debt ceiling, nor bail out Detroit.

Consumer sentiment’s end-of-July reading is the highest the index has seen since July 2007. The single-family “serious” delinquency rate dropped in June to 2.79 percent compared with 2.85 percent in May. In his interview with the New York Times on Saturday, President Obama did not mention any names as to who will be filling Bernanke’s shoes come January, when his chairman term expires.

New home sales in June rose 8.3 percent compared to May. The apartment market nationwide tightened a bit in the second quarter. And the American Institute of Architects reported that its Architectural Billings Index was 51.6 in June, down from 52.9 in May.

House price appreciation continued in May, rising 0.7 percent from the previous month. The American Trucking Associations’ For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, which is an indirect measurement of economic activity nationwide, edged 0.1 percent higher in June after surging 2.1 percent in May. And coincident indexes increased in 29 states.

Total existing-home sales dropped 1.2 percent in June to an annualized rate of 5.08 million units. An estimated 41,027 new and resale residential properties sold statewide in California last month, down 6.9 percent from May. And the Chicago Economic Activity Index increased to –0.13 in June from –0.26 in May.

Twenty-eight states experienced unemployment rate upticks in June. And travel on all roads and streets, which is an indirect indicator of economic activity, was up by 0.9 percent (2.3 billion vehicle miles) in May 2013.

Detroit became the largest city in the nation ever to file for the municipal version of bankruptcy, Chapter 9. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said that most members of the Federal Open Market Committee support tapering down the Fed’s monthly bond purchases, which might begin in September. And initial unemployment dropped by 24,000 from the previous week to 334,000.

Housing starts came in at an annualized rate of 836,000 in June, or 9.9 percent below the May total of 928,000. And according to the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book, economic growth increased at a “modest to moderate pace” since the previous survey.

According to the National Association of Homebuilders, its housing market rose six points over the last month to a score of 57 for July, the highest reading since January 2006. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers increased 0.5 percent in June. And industrial production increased 0.3 percent in June after having been unchanged in May, pointing to the continued health of the domestic manufacturing sector.

Retail and food services sales for June were $422.8 billion, up by 0.4 percent from the previous month. And home prices climbed another 0.5 percent in May compared with April.