Economic Snapshot: A steady housing market

Builder confidence has remained steady this month, while housing starts are up over 20 percent from last month and the previous year.

Housing Market Index

Builder confidence held steady at a level of 63 in November, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).

“With most of our members responding before the November elections, confidence levels remained unchanged as they awaited the results,” said NAHB Chairman Ed Brady, a home builder and developer from Bloomington, Ill. “Still, builder sentiment has held well above 60 for the past three months, indicating that the single-family housing sector continues to show slow, gradual growth.”

The HMI component measuring buyer traffic increased on point to 47 and the index gauging current sales conditions held steady at 69. The component charting sales expectations in the next six months dropped two points to 69.

“Ongoing job creation, rising incomes and attractive mortgage rates are supporting demand in the single-family housing sector. This will help keep housing on a steady, upward glide path in the months ahead,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.

Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the Northeast, Midwest and West all rose two points, to 45, 58 and 77, respectively. The South remained unchanged at 66.

Housing starts

Privately owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,323,000 in October. This is 25.5 percent above the revised September estimate of 1,054,000 and 23.3 percent above the October 2015 rate of 1,073,000.

Single-family housing starts were at a rate of 869,000 in October, 10.7 percent above the revised September figure of 785,000.

Privately owned housing completions were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,055,000 in October. This is 5.5 percent above the revised September estimate of 1,000,000 and 7.2 percent above the October 2015 rate of 984,000.

Single-family housing completions were at a rate of 749,000 in October. This is 3.9 percent above the revised September rate of 721,000.