Tag Archives: National Association of Home Builders

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) took look at the features today's young homebuyers want most and how builders are adapting to those needs. According to the association's 2012 consumer preference survey, more than 80 percent of Generation Y homebuyers (people born in 1977 or later) prefer a highly energy-efficient home over a lower-priced home without energy-efficient features, preferring to save instead on utility costs.

Recent reports from the National Association of Realtors and the Census Bureau/HUD showed sharp increases in unit sales and prices, as well as increases in the inventory of homes for sale for April. Has housing turned the corner? Look again. Sales up, prices up, what's wrong with this picture? The last time both prices and sales of new homes increased in the same month was last September. In all of 2012, sales and prices moved in opposite directions in seven of the 12 months. What of course is missing from the two data sets is any indication of demand.

The price of a new single-family home soared to a record high in April as sales jumped 2.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Thursday. The median price of a new home, according to the Census/HUD report, soared $20,900 (8.3 percent) in April to $271,600, the highest price on record. The inventory of homes available for sale rose to 155,000--the highest level since November 2011--translating to a 3.5 month supply, matching March for a record low.

As Congress moves to consider immigration reform, the housing industry is also weighing in on how certain provisions will impact the market. According to the NAHREP, allowing a path for the legalization of undocumented immigrants could mean $500 billion in new real estate transactions. The NAHB also provided input on immigration reform and asked lawmakers to establish a ""fair and workable"" E-Verify system during a congressional round table discussion last week.

In sharp contrast to reports of improving builder confidence, housing starts plunged at the steepest rate in more than two years in April, falling to a five-month low even as housing permits surged, the Census Bureau and HUD reported jointly Thursday. The 16.5 percent month-to-month drop in starts to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 853,000 caught economists by surprise. The consensus forecast had been starts would fall--but to 969,000 from March's originally reported 1,036,000.

As interest rates stay low, housing affordability across the country remained strong in the first quarter but showed signs of weakening, according to data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). According to the index, 73.7 percent of new and existing-homes sold in the first quarter of this year were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $64,400. In the fourth quarter of last year, 74.9 percent of homes were considered to be affordable to median-income earners.

Despite still sluggish new home sales, builder confidence improved in May for the first time since December, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported Wednesday. All three components of the HMI improved in May. The reading on current home sales increased four points to 48 from 44 (revised from the initially reported 45), the outlook for sales in the next six months rose to 53 from 52 (revised down from April's reading of 53), and the measure of buyer traffic rose to 33 from April's unrevised 30.

""Fiscal policy,"" simply put, is the means by which a government adjusts its levels of spending in order to monitor and influence a nation's economy. At the heart of the spending/growth disparity is a philosophical debate over the role of government: those who believe government should be run like a business and avoid debt and those who see the role of government as spending counter-cyclically, that is increasing spending when the nation's economy is challenged to avoid further struggles. direct a country's economic goals.

According to NAHB, the number of housing markets showing ""sustained improvement"" fell to 258 from April's 273. The index, put together by NAHB and First American Title, tracks housing permits, employment, and home prices in markets across the country. ""While seasonal trends in home prices resulted in an overall decline in the IMI this month, the index remains at a very strong level and continues to represent markets in every state,"" remarked NAHB chief economist David Crowe.

After experiencing the sharpest drop in two years in February, new home sales increased 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 417,000 in March, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected March sales to increase to 419,000 from a February's originally reported 411,000. The median price of a new home, according to the Census-HUD report, plunged $17,900 (or 6.8 percent) in March to $247,000, the largest month-over-month decline since February 2011.