Builders’ confidence in the market for new single-family homes slipped this month as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index dropped to 68 in June from 70 in May.
IFR's poll of economists predicted the index would remain at 70 this month.
The current single-family home sales index slipped to 75 from 76, the sales expectations index for the next six months dipped to 76 from 77; and the traffic of prospective buyers index decreased to 50 from 51.
"Builders are optimistic about housing market conditions as consumer demand continues to grow," said NAHB Chairman Randy Noel. "However, builders are increasingly concerned that tariffs placed on Canadian lumber and other imported products are hurting housing affordability. Record-high lumber prices have added nearly $9,000 to the price of a new single-family home since January 2017."
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.
