Builders’ confidence in the market for new single-family homes basically held steady in January as the National Association of Home Builders’ housing market index returned to 19 from December’s downwardly revised level of 18, originally reported as 19, the group announced yesterday.
The figure was on target with IFR Markets’ poll of economists predicted level of 19.
“The HMI has held within a narrow two-point range for the past five months, indicating that builder views of housing market conditions essentially haven’t changed over that time,” said NAHB chief economist David Seiders. “Builders are anticipating a time when market conditions will support an upswing in building activity — most likely in the second half of 2008.”
The three component indexes were mostly higher in January. The current single-family home sales index remained at 19, the sales expectations index for the next six months rose to 28 from 26, and the traffic of prospective buyers index gained to 14 from 13.
