The growing confidence in the housing market that builders have reported for seven months came to an abrupt halt in August, as rising mortgage rates and shelter inflation made new single-family homes less affordable and dampened consumer demand.
These factors have created a situation that needs to be addressed by government policies at all levels, according to Robert Dietz, Chief Economist with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Builder confidence fell six points to 50 from July to August on the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The HMI index gauging current sales conditions fell five points to 57, the component charting sales expectations in the next six months declined four points to 55 and the gauge measuring traffic of prospective buyers dropped six points to 34. The HMI stood at 84 in December 2021.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
