The latest level was the highest since a matching reading in November 2005.
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“The fact the builder confidence has been in the low 60s for 3 straight months shows that single-family housing is making slow but steady progress”, said NAHB Chairman Tom Woods, a home builder from Blue Springs, Mo.
“Today’s report is consistent with our forecast for a gradual strengthening of the single-family housing sector in 2015”, NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said in a statement. The index has been at 60 or more since June and above the tipping point of 50 since July 2014. 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.
Outstanding mortgage debt nationwide fell 0.7 percent in the April-June quarter to $8.12 trillion, putting it at roughly the same level as three years ago when the housing market bottomed, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported last week. Still, builders said they are finding it increasingly more hard to purchase land and to hire crews for construction.
Another increase this month for builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes.
The combination of stable gains in jobs and low rates for mortgages has increased the sales this year of new homes.
In the NAHB’s four regions, the three-month moving average index in the South rose from 61 to 63 in August, and by a like amount to 44 in the Northeast.
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The view by builders of the current conditions for sales and the traffic of buyers improved this month, while sales prospects during the six months remained stable. In the West the index rose by three points to 63 and by the same amount in the Midwest to 58.
