Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes has improved for a fourth consecutive month in August with a two-point gain to 37 on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). This gain builds on a six-point increase in July and brings the index to its highest level since February 2007.
‘From the builder's perspective, current sales conditions, sales prospects for the next six months and traffic of prospective buyers are all better than they have been in more than five years,’ says Barry Rutenberg, NAHB chairman and a home builder from Gainesville, Fla. ‘While there is still much room for improvement, we have come a long way from the depths of the recession, and the outlook appears to be brightening.’
According to the NAHB, every HMI component has posted gains in August. The components gauging current sales conditions and traffic of prospective buyers each have risen three points, to 39 and 31, respectively, while the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months has inched up one point to 44. All are at their highest levels in more than five years.
Regionally, builder confidence has risen nine points to 42 in the Midwest and two points to 35 in the South, but declined nine points to 25 in the Northeast and three points to 40 in the West in August.