NAHB Housing Index Slips to 67 in Jan.

Builders' confidence in the market for new single-family homes dipped as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index fell to 67 in January from a downwardly revised 69 in December, first reported as 70.

Thomson Reuters' poll of economists predicted the index would be 69.

"Builders begin the year optimistic that a new Congress and administration will help create a better business climate for small businesses, particularly as it relates to streamlining and reforming the regulatory process," NAHB Chairman Granger MacDonald said.

"NAHB expects solid 10 percent growth in single-family construction in 2017, adding to the gains of 2016," according to NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. "Concerns going into the year include rising mortgage interest rates as well as a lack of lots and access to labor."

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 fell to 72 from 75, the sales expectations index for the next six months decreased to 76 from 78; and the traffic of prospective buyers index dipped to 51 from 52.

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