The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index fell to 75 in August.
Buyer traffic fell to its lowest level since July 2020 due to prospective buyers’ adverse reaction to heightened construction costs, noted NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke. He further advised policymakers to create long-lasting solutions to correct these current supply-chain issues.
“While the demographics and interest for home buying remain solid, higher costs and material access issues have resulted in lower levels of home building and even put a hold on some new home sales,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “While these supply-side limitations are holding back the market, our expectation is that production bottlenecks should ease over the coming months and the market should return to more normal conditions.”
The HMI component measuring buyer traffic dropped five points to 60. The component measuring current sales conditions fell five points to 81, and the component measuring sales expectations in the next sixth months remained unchanged at 81.
Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the Midwest fell two points to 68, the Northeast fell one point to 74, the South posted a three-point decline to 82, and the West dropped two points to 85.
Read the NAHB release.