The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released its NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for March on Monday. The HMI measures builder confidence in the market for newly constructed single family homes. A reading of 50 for the NAHB Housing Market Index (HMI) indicates that more builders are confident of housing market conditions for new single family homes than those who are not confident. Home builder confidence fell for the third consecutive month with a two-point drop to a reading of 44 in March. Several Factors Create New Home Bottleneck An NAHB leader noted that several situations are causing a “bottleneck” in the supply of new homes as compared to those wanting to buy them:
- Low supply of developed lots available for new construction
- Rising costs for labor and materials
- Stricter mortgage credit requirements for homebuyers and lowball home appraisals. (These circumstances are typically caused by some mortgage lenders taking a conservative attitude toward risk management by tightening credit requirements and appraisers erring on the side of caution when valuing single family homes.)