Home builders 'feeling" better!
Oct. 18, 2011, 10:01 a.m. EDT · CORRECTED
NAHB home-builder gauge jumps 4 points to 18
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By Steve Goldstein
Fixes to reflect that April 2010 was when the homebuyer tax credit ended.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Home-builder confidence in October rose by the largest amount since the ending of the now-expired home-buyer tax credit program, though the gauge remains mired at historically weak levels, according to an index released Tuesday. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index rose by four points to 18, the biggest one-month gain since April 2010. The index, which measures builder confidence in the market for new-built single-family homes and is closely correlated with single-family housing starts data, came in stronger than the 14 reading seen by a MarketWatch-compiled economist poll. That said, the index - designed so that a reading of 50 is consistent with a "good" assessment - is still not back to pre-recession levels. The index hasn't been above 50 since April 2006.
