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Today, the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) released their monthly housing market index (HMI) with a figure of 62. November’s number represents a three-point drop from the HMI a month ago, and reveals that confidence in homebuilding has gone down.
The housing market index is based on a monthly survey of NAHB members measuring homebuilder opinion on the current and future American single-family housing market. Despite the November HMI of 62 coming in below the industry’s general prediction of 64, NAHB assures that it represents continued confidence among homebuilders. In fact, this month’s reading is an entire four points higher than it was just a year ago.
As NAWRB has written in recent blogs, there are positive and discouraging factors for the housing market. Elevated home prices and rents have coupled with unmoving wages to significantly impact people across the country, thus stalling hopes of buying homes. This struggle has given rise to several movements encompassing everything from rent awareness to a higher minimum wage.
Some states have fared better than others in this regard. August 2015 was a good month for California; 470,000 jobs were created in metro areas and 431,800 units were sold in the state, marking an increase of over 35,000 sold units from August 2014.
According to the Labor Department, inflation-adjusted wages have increased by over two percent in the last 12 months and the unemployment rate is at its lowest since the Great Recession.
While some areas have been hit hard by the low home affordability, unemployment, stagnant wage medley, others are slowly and steadily improving. This month’s HMI is representative of this discord in the American housing market.