Builders’ confidence in the market for new single-family homes was unchanged as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index remained at 58 in April.
The March reading was unrevised.
Thomson Reuters' poll of economists predicted the index would be 59.
“Builder confidence has held firm at 58 for three consecutive months, showing that the single-family housing sector continues to recover at a slow but consistent pace,” NAHB Chairman Ed Brady said. “As we enter the spring home buying season, we should see the market move forward.”
“Builders remain cautiously optimistic about construction growth in 2016,” according to NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “Solid job creation and low mortgage interest rates will sustain continued gains in the single-family housing market in the months 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 slipped to 63 from 65, the sales expectations index for the next six months climbed to 62 from 61; and the traffic of prospective buyers index grew to 44 from 43.
