The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index fell to 81 in June.
NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke noted that the rising costs and declining availability for lumber and other building materials has lowered builder sentiment and pushed new home prices past the budgets of prospective buyers.
“While builders have adopted a variety of business strategies including price escalation clauses to deal with scarce building materials, labor and lots, unavoidable increases for new home prices are pushing some buyers to the sidelines” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “Moreover, these supply-constraints are resulting in insufficient appraisals and making it more difficult for builders to access construction loans.”
The HMI component measuring buyer traffic dropped two points to 71. The component measuring current sales conditions sales conditions fell to 86, while the component measuring sales expectations in the next six months declined to 79.
Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the South rose one point to 85, and the West fell one point to 89. The Northeast fell five points to 78, and the Midwest decreased three-points to 72.
Read the NAHB release
