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 — gained to 56 in April from a downwardly revised 52 in March.
Thomson Reuters' poll of economists predicted the index would be 55.
The March index was first reported as 53.
"As the spring buying season gets underway, home builders are confident that current low interest rates and continued job growth will draw consumers to the market," NAHB Chairman Tom Woods said.
"The HMI component index measuring future sales expectations rose five points in April to its highest level of the year," according to NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "This uptick shows builders are feeling optimistic that the housing market will continue to strengthen throughout 2015."
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 climbed to 61 from 58, the sales expectations index for the next six months rose to 64 from 59; and the traffic of prospective buyers index grew to 41 from 37.
