Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes stateside fell three points to a level of 64 in September from a downwardly revised August reading of 67 on the U.S. National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).
The figures, derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 30 years, gauge builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as either "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.
All three HMI components posted losses in September but indicating levels in the States remain at healthy levels. The component gauging current sales conditions fell four points to 70 and the index charting sales expectations in the next six months dropped four points to 74. Meanwhile, the component measuring buyer traffic slipped a single point to 47.
