Confidence in United States single-family homes have a slow but steady rise this month, despite being stalled last July. The monthly sentiment index released from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) states that the confidence level of homeowners to homebuilders rose by one point to 61, making it the highest level since November 2005 or almost a decade ago.
Any score above 50 is considered positive. The confidence level of homebuilders last year stood at 55.
There are three components in the monthly sentiment index: buyer traffic, current sales condition, and sales expectation.
The buyer traffic component still fell short of being positive even after increasing by two points, making it at 45. Current sales condition, on the other hand, have increased to 66 points after the one-point increase. While Sales Expectation for the next six months continues to stay strong at 70.
According to CNBC News, homebuilder confidence in the West rose by three points at 63, just like in the Midwest which increased to 58. The South added two points to their confidence point making it at 63, while the Northeast, which has the smallest share of home construction in the United States, remain under the positive level at 46.
"Today's report is consistent with our forecast for a gradual strengthening of the single-family housing sector in 2015," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "Job and economic gains should keep the market moving forward at a modest pace throughout the rest of the year," added the economist.
The rise of single-family housing in June was halted in July, but is still up by nearly 15 percent from last year, according to the United States Census. Even with this slow rise, it is still under waters for historical norms, and even with the rise of demands for new houses.
Mortgage applications to purchase or refurnish a new home also fell in July, amidst interest rate hikes.
