Builders’ confidence in the market for new single-family homes decreased as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index dropped to 64 in September from a downwardly revised 67 in August.
The August number was first reported as 68.
IFR's poll of economists predicted the index would be 67.
“The recent hurricanes have intensified our members’ concerns about the availability of labor and the cost of building materials,” NAHB Chairman Granger MacDonald said.
“Once the rebuilding process is underway, I expect builder confidence will return to the high levels we saw this spring.” according to NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “With ongoing job creation, economic growth and rising consumer confidence, we should see the housing market continue to recover at a gradual, steady pace throughout the rest of the year.”
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 dropped to 70 from 74 the sales expectations index for the next six months decreased to 74 from 78; and the traffic of prospective buyers index dipped to 47 from 48.
