LAS VEGAS (National Association of Home Builders) – Builder confidence in the new single-family home market dropped one point to 15 this month, according to the latest housing market index from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo.
Experts attributed the decrease to the poor job market and increasing number of home foreclosures.
“At this point, home builders have done everything we possibly can to set the stage for a housing recovery,” said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson. “We’ve thinned our inventories, we’ve kept new construction to a minimum, and we’ve fought for and achieved a great new buying incentive with the extension and expansion of the home buyer tax credit.”
“Homebuying conditions have rarely been as good as they are right now, but consumers are still waiting to see significant positive signs of improvement in employment and confidence, and this is slowing buyers’ return to the market,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.
Crowe said competition from foreclosed homes is also severely impacting new-home sales.
The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.”
The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “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.