Builder confidence increases for first time in five months

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose 3 points this month, the first improvement in five months, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, released today. “Builders are starting to see some flickers of interest among potential buyers, and are hopeful that this interest will translate to more sales in the coming months,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones. “However, because most builders still have no access to credit for building homes, there is a real concern that we will not be able to meet the pent-up demand when consumers are ready to get back in the market. This problem threatens to severely slow the housing and economic recovery.” All three of the NAHB indexes registered gains in October. The index gauging current sales conditions rose 3 points, while the index gauging sales expectations in the next six months rose 5 points and the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers rose 2 points to 11. TRD