NEW YORK - Builders’ confidence in the market for new single-family homes remained at its lowest level since March 2009, as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index - a monthly gauge of builder sentiment – was steady at 13 in September from an unrevised 13 in August.
Thomson Reuters' poll of economists predicted a level of 14.
“In general, builders haven’t seen any reason for improved optimism in market conditions over the past month,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones. “If anything, consumer uncertainty has increased, and builders feel their hands are tied until potential home buyers feel more secure about the job market and economy.”
“The stall in the nation’s housing market continues,” NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said. “Builders report that the two leading obstacles to new-home sales right now are consumer reluctance in the face of the poor job market and the large number of foreclosed properties for sale. However, we do expect that moderate improvement in the job market will help boost consumer confidence and improve conditions for new-home sales in this year’s final quarter.”
Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 20 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.
One of the three component indexes fell in September. The current single-family home sales index held at 13, and the sales expectations index for the next six months remained at 18. The traffic of prospective buyers index dipped to 9 from 10.
