September 20, 2010
Nation's Building News

The Official Online Newspaper of NAHB

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Economics and Finance
Builders’ Weak Confidence Shows No Improvement in September

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes was unchanged this month from August’s low level of 13, according to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), which was released on Sept. 20.

“In general, builders haven’t seen any reason for improved optimism in market conditions over the past month,” noted 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,” agreed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “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 Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales, sales expectations for the next six months and the traffic of prospective buyers. Scores from each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

Neither the component gauging current sales conditions nor the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months budged in September from their low readings in the previous month, holding at 13 and 18, respectively. The index gauging traffic of prospective buyers edged down a single point, to 9.

Regionally, HMI readings fell two points in the Northeast and three points in the Midwest, to 16 and 12, respectively. The South posted a two-point gain to 14, while the West held unchanged, at 8.


Visit NAHB’s ‘Eye on Housing’ Blog for the Latest Economics and Housing Policy News and Analysis

Housing and economics followers can get the latest economics and housing policy news, analysis, studies, charts and graphs from NAHB’s free new blog, “Eye on Housing,” at http://eyeonhousing.wordpress.com.

Featuring NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe, as well as observations and comments from NAHB economists Bernie Markstein, Paul Emrath, Robert Dietz, Peter Grist and Robert Denk, the blog also includes links to relevant housing stories and information from other news sources.

Blog entries will be updated on a regular basis as the news related to housing occurs. The blog also will replace the content in NAHB’s Eye on the Economy. While subscribers will still receive their regular issues of Eye on the Economy, the e-newsletter will serve primarily as a digest of the content featured on the "Eye on Housing" blog.

Readers can either visit the free blog directly at http://eyeonhousing.wordpress.com, or subscribe to the RSS feed on the blog to have the latest entries sent to them as they are posted.

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