January 2013 NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index Remains Steady

The latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index was released today. Builders’ confidence remained at the same level (47) as last month. The index continues to hold at its highest level since April of 2006. The three-month moving average for the West increased by four points to 51.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as good, fair or poor. The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as high to very high, average or low to very low. Scores from each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.