The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) rose to 37 in August, which is the highest it’s been in five and a half years. Since February 2007, the HMI has not been as high as 37. This also marks the fourth straight month that the HMI has risen. Although it is not quite at 50, a level that home builders consider building conditions o be good rather than poor, chairman of the NAHB, Barry Rutenberg states, “While there is still much room for improvement, we have come a long way from the depths of the recession and the outlook appears to be brightening.”
There are three components that make up the HMI: one gauges current sales conditions, another gauges traffic of prospective buyers, and the last gauges sales expectations for the next six months. All of these posted gains this month, and are the highest they have been since February 2007 as well.
The housing market in Austin began coming out of its slump a few months ago, but as the housing market continues to recover nationally, it’s promising that our market in Austin will continue to grow even more in the coming months. In fact, it seems that the Austin custom home market is picking up as well. At Sterling Custom Homes, we have been steadily busy this year and it seems that conditions will remain if not pick up in the coming months and we’re up to the challenge.