The latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today shows that builder confidence has continued to fall. They attribute the drop in confidence to many factors including the surplus of unsold homes on the market, ongoing concerns in the subprime mortgage arena and affordability issues associated with higher interest rates and tightening lending standards. The confidence index is based on a survey of builders that asks about current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months, and rate traffic of prospective buyers. NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders stated that “Builders are actively trimming prices and offering buyer incentives to work down their inventories, but meanwhile there is a large supply of vacant existing homes on the market, and affordability problems persist despite efforts to attract buyers."
The latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today shows that builder confidence has continued to fall. They attribute the drop in confidence to many factors including the surplus of unsold homes on the market, ongoing concerns in the subprime mortgage arena and affordability issues associated with higher interest rates and tightening lending standards. The confidence index is based on a survey of builders that asks about current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months, and rate traffic of prospective buyers. NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders stated that “Builders are actively trimming prices and offering buyer incentives to work down their inventories, but meanwhile there is a large supply of vacant existing homes on the market, and affordability problems persist despite efforts to attract buyers."
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