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Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes rose one point in November to 38, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).
“While lower mortgage rates are a positive development for affordability conditions, many buyers remain hesitant because of the recent record-long government shutdown and concerns over job security and inflation,” says NAHB chairman Buddy Hughes, a home builder and developer from Lexington, N.C. “More builders are using incentives to get deals closed, including lowering prices, but many potential buyers still remain on the fence.”
The HMI survey also revealed 41% of builders reported cutting prices in November. Meanwhile, the average price reduction was 6% in November, the same rate as October.
“We continue to see demand-side weakness as a softening labor market and stretched consumer finances are contributing to a difficult sales environment,” says NAHB chief economist Robert Dietz. “After a decline for single-family housing starts in 2025, NAHB is forecasting a slight gain in 2026 as builders continue to report future sales conditions in marginally positive territory.”
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 for 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.
The HMI index measuring current sales conditions increased two points to 41, the index measuring future sales fell three points to 51 and the gauge measuring traffic of prospective buyers increased by one point to 26.
