Builder Confidence Slips in March
Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes in March fell two points to a level of 53 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today. The NAHB noted that it remains in positive territory and reported that the drop "is largely attributable to supply chain issues," said NAHB chief economist David Crowe..
The data is derived from a monthly survey. You can find the NAHB's news item here.
CNBC reporter Diana Olick wrote that builders are "losing faith." She added that the suggestion of pent-up demand "is not translating into increased housing starts. Single-family home construction has been running at an anemic pace, with starts down nearly 7 percent in January month-to-month, according to the U.S. Census."
The NAHB said two of the three HMI components posted losses in March. The component gauging current sales conditions fell three points to 58 while the component measuring buyer traffic dropped two points to 37. The gauge charting sales expectations in the next six months held steady at 59.
Myles Udland, reporting in Business Insider, said it was "another data disappointment." In his post, though, he provided input from an economic analyst that suggested weather, like last year only not as severe, had weighed on builder confidence. The analyst added that the number is consistent with a dip after a couple of above-trend sentiment numbers.
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