Builders' confidence in the market for new single-family homes was flat as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index held at 63 in November from an unrevised 63 in October.
Thomson Reuters' poll of economists predicted the index would be 63.
"With most of our members responding before the November elections, confidence levels remained unchanged as they awaited the results," NAHB Chairman Ed Brady said. "Still, builder sentiment has held well above 60 for the past three months, indicating that the single-family housing sector continues to show slow, gradual growth."
"Still, builder sentiment has held well above 60 for the past three months, indicating that the single-family housing sector continues to show slow, gradual growth," according to NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.
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 held at 69, the sales expectations index for the next six months slid to 69 from 71; and the traffic of prospective buyers index increased to 47 from 46.
