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Builder confidence in the market for single-family homes remained solid, with the outlook for the remainder of the year particularly high, the National Association of Home Builders reported today.
NAHB's housing market index, a monthly measure of builder confidence, gained two points to 64 in July, and a component index gauging sales expectations for the next six months rose three points to a reading of 73 – its highest level in more than two years.
"Builders remain confident as favorably low interest rates on home mortgages and solid price performance continue to stimulate home buying," said NAHB President Kent Conine. "And builder expectations for home sales through the remainder of the year are high throughout the country."
"The survey reflects builder sentiment during the month of June when the lowest interest rates in nearly 50 years continued to stimulate both home buying and mortgage refinancing. Since then there has been a bump in rates, but they remain very attractive to home buyers," added NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. "A bigger concern among builders in several regions is their ability to meet demand because land availability has been reduced due to regulatory constraints and the high cost of land in their areas."
Each of the component indexes recorded continued to gain in July. The index gauging current single-family home sales rose two points to 69, the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers rose three points to 50, and sales expectations topped 73.
"Builders are as optimistic now as they were last December and January. They've experienced several solid months of a fundamentally healthy new-home market. NAHB forecasts that 2003 sales will exceed last year's record-breaking total, and builders apparently share that view," Seiders said.
The National Association of Home Builders is a Washington-based trade association representing more than 211,000 members.
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