NAHB housing market index hits eight-month high in November
Sentiment among US housebuilders unexpectedly improved in November, hitting an eight-month high, according to data released on Thursday.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index rose to 70 from 68 the month before, beating expectations for it to remain unchanged and marking the highest reading since March and the second-highest on record since July 2005.
The component gauging current sales conditions rose two points to 77, while the index measuring buyer traffic was up two points to 50. Meanwhile, the index charting sales expectations in the next six months fell just one point to 77.
“Demand for housing is increasing at a consistent pace, driven by job and economic growth, rising homeownership rates and limited housing inventory,” said NAHB chief economist Robert Dietz. “With these economic fundamentals in place, we should see continued upward movement of the single-family housing market as we close out 2017.”
Pantheon Macroeconomics said the recovery from the hurricane hit is now complete, with all the sub-indexes now close to or above their pre-storm levels.
“This is consistent with our take on the MBA mortgage purchase applications index, where the seasonal adjustments in recent months, in our view, grossly understate the real strength of demand. The NAHB data are consistent with both rising new home sales and housing construction activity in recent months,
though the volatility of the sales and starts data mean that anything can happen in individual months.”