Builders' confidence in the market for new single-family homes fell as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index — a monthly gauge of builder sentiment — slipped to 55 in February from
Thomson Reuters' poll of economists predicted the index would be 58.
"Overall, builder sentiment remains fairly solid, with this slight downturn largely attributable to the unusually high snow levels across much of the nation," NAHB Chairman Tom Woods said.
"For the past eight months, confidence levels have held in the mid- to upper 50s range, which is consistent with a modest, ongoing recovery," according to NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "Solid job growth, affordable home prices and historically low mortgage rates should help unleash growing pent-up demand and keep the housing market moving forward in the year ahead."
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 dipped to 61 from 62, the sales expectations index for the next six months remained at 60; and the traffic of prospective buyers index fell to 39 from 44.
