Optimism in the home building industry has risen to the most favorable level in almost a decade. Heavy shopper traffic drove the improvement.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for the month of August came in at 61.
The index is based on a monthly survey of home builders and is intended to provide insight into current market conditions.
This month’s index was at its
highest reading since November 2005.
A month earlier, the index was 60, while it stood at just 55 as of August 2014.
“Job and economic gains should keep the market moving forward at a modest pace throughout the rest of the year,” NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said in the report.
Home builder confidence during August 2015 was highest in the West, where the index was 65, and lowest in the Northeast, at 43.
There are three indices that comprise the national index. The first is a reading on the current sale of new homes, which inched up one point to 66 this month.
The next component, expected single-family sales over the next six months,
had an unchanged index at 70.
The biggest improvement was with traffic of prospective new home buyers, with that index increasing two points from July to 45.
