Builder Confidence in U.S. Dips in April

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The National Association of Home Builders is reporting this week that U.S. homebuilder confidence dipped three points in April 2017 to a level of 68 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, after an unusually high March 2017 reading.

"Even with this month's modest drop, builder confidence is on very firm ground, and builders are reporting strong interest among potential home buyers," said NAHB Chairman Granger MacDonald, a home builder and developer from Kerrville, Texas.

"The fact that the HMI measure of current sales conditions has been over 70 for five consecutive months shows that there is continued demand for new construction," said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. "However, builders are facing several challenges, such as hefty regulatory costs and ongoing increases in building material prices."

Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 30 years, 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 conditions as good than poor.

All three HMI components posted losses in April but remain at healthy levels. The components gauging current sales conditions fell three points to 74 while the index charting sales expectations in the next six months dropped three points to 75. Meanwhile, the component measuring buyer traffic edged one point down to 52.

Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the West and Midwest both rose one point to 77 and 68, respectively. The South held steady at 68, and the Northeast fell two points to 46.