Homebuilder sentiment took a tumble on the most recent reading – a reading of 31 against an expectation of 34 and a previous reading of 33. This is the lowest confidence level since 2012.
My personal observation is we are not seeing much employment effect at this time as builders had quite a level of ‘under construction’ properties ongoing thus employment remains decent. My guess is we will see more effects come February/March–and we will see what the spring season brings us in terms of buyer interest—everything will be interest rate and inflation (and thus pricing) dependent.
The homebuilder press release is here.