Kicking off a week of key reports on the health of the foundering U.S. housing market, the National Association of Home Builders on Monday said its NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index dropped two points to 31 this month, falling short of the median estimate of 34 among economists in a Reuters poll. A reading above 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good rather than poor.
The housing market has seen the most pronounced effects so far of the aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate hikes that are aimed at quashing inflation that continues to hold at unacceptably high levels. Interest rates on the most popular type of U.S. home loan topped 7% - the highest since 2001 - in October, and sales of new and existing homes tumbled by more than 30% from January through October.Since March, the U.S.
"The silver lining in this HMI report is that it is the smallest drop in the index in the past six months, indicating that we are possibly nearing the bottom of the cycle for builder sentiment," said Robert Dietz, NAHB's chief economist. "Mortgage rates are down from above 7% in recent weeks to about 6.3% today, and for the first time since April, builders registered an increase in future sales expectations.
"The cuts in prices and other incentives will help offset the erosion in homebuying affordability and should help to keep some floor under new home sales," Matthew Martin, U.S. economist at Oxford Economics wrote. "The latest decline in mortgage rates – if it sticks – will also improve affordability at the margin."
Loans Loans Latest News, Loans Loans Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: FoxBusiness - 🏆 458. / 53 Read more »