Unusually severe weather conditions across much of the United States, along with continued concerns over the cost and availability of labor and lots, resulted in a 10-point drop (to 46) in builder confidence in the market for newly-built, single-family homes, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. "Clearly, constraints on the supply chain for building materials, developed lots and skilled workers are making builders worry," NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said in a statement released Tuesday. "The weather also hurt retail and auto sales and this had a contributing effect on demand for new homes."
Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 25 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. Looking at three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the West was unchanged at 63 in February while the Midwest registered a one-point decline to 57, the South registered a three-point decline to 53 and the Northeast posted a four-point decline to 38.
HMI tables can be found here, and more information on housing statistics is available here.
