After dipping a bit in October, Builder confidence is back up to where it was in September. Headlines read that builder confidence is up, we’d like to think of it as builder confidence bouncing subtly at the bottom as they struggle to obtain financing and keep interest as they compete with the perception that short sales and foreclosures are better deals.
According to the National Home Builders Association in conjunction with Wells Fargo, the “Housing Market Index” (HMI) gauging builder perceptions of builder perceptions of current single-family home sales, buyer traffic and sales expectations, with all numbers bumping back up this month.
“Though the gains have been incremental, the fact that builder confidence has improved over the past two months is encouraging,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “Many builders are reporting that while the quantity of buyer traffic through their model homes has not improved dramatically, the quality of that traffic seems to be getting better – meaning that more people appear to be serious about buying in the near future.”
Although rising nationally, the HMI dipped in the Northeast, stayed steady in the West and rose in the South and Midwest.
As we’ve been saying for a long time, without employment rates improving, builders will continue to suffer along with all sectors of real estate and heck, all sectors of the economy. The coming weeks in the lame duck Congress won’t likely change employment, but we’ll hold out hope for a miracle!
