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The good news is that National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for August has come out and it has stabilized. That is good news because this index has been in free fall over the past couple of years.

Of course, the index has stabilized at a level that is below the poor rating they give. If the index goes below 50 it is considered poor, and by my reckoning we are severely below the poor line.

So I am calling the August Builders Confidence at MISERABLE.

Lets just say things have bottomed out at miserable for builders and that the future may be looking brighter.

Two out of three of the HMI’s component indexes posted gains in August, including a one-point rise in the index gauging current sales conditions, to 16, and a two-point uptick in the index gauging sales expectations for the next six months, to 25. The component gauging traffic of prospective buyers remained unchanged, at 12.

Regionally, the Northeast and Midwest each posted gains in builder confidence, with the Northeast up two points to 16 and the Midwest up four points to 14. Meanwhile, the South remained unchanged at 20, and the West, whose new-homes market has been heavily impacted by an upswing in foreclosure sales at cut-rate prices, posted a decline of three points to 11.

via Press Release…

Related posts:

1. National Home Builder Confidence Falls Again For June, 2007
2. Builders Confidence Hits Record Low In July
3. Home-Builder Confidence Falls As New Home Market Slows in 28 States
4. Gallup Survey Shows “Confidence in Housing Market Dips”
5. Existing home sales rise 2% in August, 2005