Builders’ confidence in the market for new single-family homes grew as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index - a monthly gauge of builder sentiment rose to 47 in April from 46 in March.
Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 30 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as either "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 current single-family home sales index stayed at 51, the sales expectations index for the next six months rose to 57 from 53; and the traffic of prospective buyers index stayed at 32.
Thomson Reuters' poll of economists predicted the index would be 50.
