Coming into our busy season, rising Home Builder confidence is a fantastic sign for home sellers. Contrary to popular belief, new construction in your region is a good omen for the sale of your own home. New Construction is not so much your competition as it is an indication that more buyers are seeking homes in your area. Homes are selling fast right now, and prices are rising! Give me a call for an up-to-date price consultation on your Arizona home. ~Bill
posted by Trang Ho Contributor, Forbes
Home Builder Confidence Hits 2015 High And Why ETFs May Have Plenty More Room To Rise
Home builder confidence bounced back from a three-month dive in April to hit its highest monthly reading of 2015, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Investor outperformance in home builder ETFs following a harsh winter, signals the stock market is pricing in an improvement in the housing market, which should continue in the April-August selling season, the most active time of year for home sales.
National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released Wednesday was slightly better than expected in April, increasing to 56 versus the consensus of 55. Readings above 50 indicate that more home builders view market conditions as good than poor.
“The HMI component index measuring future sales expectations rose five points in April to its highest level of the year,” David Crowe, NAHB Chief Economist, said in a statement. “This uptick shows builders are feeling optimistic that the housing market will continue to strengthen throughout 2015 .”
Home builder sentiment improved for present and future sales of single-family homes. Prospective buyer traffic also improved but registered at 41, which means conditions are still viewed as poor.
“In short, fairly encouraging data, consistent with housing continuing to recover gradually at least.” Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, N.Y. “Even more positively, we expect starts to be up sharply in tomorrow’s report for March, although that forecast mainly reflects a reversal of weather effects.”
The Commerce Department is set to release housing starts data for March Thursday morning . Housing starts projected to rebound to a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate of 1.04 million units from 897,000 in February, according to Bloomberg. Building permits are expected to dip to 1.08 million units from 1.1 million in February. February housing starts in the U.S. plummeted 17% month over month to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 897,000 homes. Severe winter weather kept both consumers and builders.
New Privately Owned Housing Units Started
Annual Data in Thousands
2001 1,602.70
2002 1,704.90
2003 1,847.70
2004 1,955.80
2005 2,068.30
2006 1,800.90
2007 1,355.00
2008 905.5
2009 554
2010 586.9
2011 608.8
2012 780.6
2013 924.9
2014 1,003.30
Avg. since 1959 1,449.31
Source: U.S. Census
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