Builder Confidence Steady

Sometimes, not changing is a good thing. According to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released this week (March 17), builder confidence in the market for new single-family homes stayed the same for March, and NAHB experts predicted recovery later this year.

“NAHB applauds the Federal Reserve’s aggressive actions in response to escalation of financial market pressures,” said David Seiders, NAHB chief economist, in a press release. “Provided that the necessary actions are taken promptly, a housing market recovery most likely would take shape by the second half of this year.”

The NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as either “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

The index gauging current sales conditions for newly built single-family homes held firm at 20 while the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers stayed at 19, following a significant gain in February. For more: http://www.nahb.org/news_details.aspx?sectionID=0&newsID=6447.

(Photo credit: PennyWise, Stock Exchange. Thanks!)