Home builders reveal solid outlook

Home builders this month expressed a solid outlook for the housing market for newly built, single-family homes, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index released today. The index dipped two points to 68 in February, and builder expectations for the next six months held steady from the beginning of the year. The monthly index surveys home builders about current sales of new homes and prospects for sales in the next six months. Builders rate conditions as "good," "fair" or "poor," and also rate traffic of prospective buyers as " high to very high," "average" or "low to very low." Scores for each component are used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. The February index decline was due to a three-point dip in the component gauging current sales activity to 74. Some builders surveyed for the index mentioned the weather as a factor. The...