Home Builder Confidence Rises For First Time in Months

Home builder confidence for newly built, single-family homes rose three points to 16 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for October.

This was the first improvement registered by the HMI in five months, and returns the index to a level last seen in June of this year, according to the survey.

Readings below 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market. The last time the index was above 50 was in April 2006.

High unemployment, slow job growth and tight credit have kept people from buying homes.

But all three of the HMI’s component indexes registered gains in October.

The index gauging current sales conditions rose three points to 16, while the index gauging sales expectations in the next six months rose five points to 23 and the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers rose two points to 11.

Builder confidence also improved across every region in October. The South and West each posted four-point gains, to 18 and 12, respectively, while the Northeast and Midwest each posted single-point gains, to 17 and 13, respectively.