Home Builders In Funk Over Winter Weather

Home builder confidence dipped slightly in February on weather-related concerns, a trade group said Tuesday. http://www.nahb.org/news_details.aspx?newsID=17117 Separately, home sales in January were 3.9 percent below those of a year earlier, according to a survey of 53 metro areas by the residential real estate franchise company Re/Max. http://www.remax.com/newsroom/press-releases/february-2015-remax-national-housing-report.htm The measure of home builders' confidence in February fell to 55, from 57 in January, with any number over 50 suggesting that more builders view conditions as good than poor, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Tom Woods, chairman of the builders' group which sponsors the monthly survey, said the slight downturn is "largely attributable to the unusually high snow levels across much of the nation." Two of the three components of the builders' so-called Housing Market Index survey fell in February. The component gauging current sales conditions edged one point lower to 61, while the component measuring buyer traffic fell five points to 39. A measure of sales expectations in the next six months held steady at 60. Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional scores of the buiders' confidence index, the Northeast fell a single point to 46, and the Midwest and South each posted a two-point drop to 54 and 57, respectively. The West rose two points to 68. Separately, Re/Max said Tuesday that January sales fell 32.1 percent from December, versus an average sequential January decline of 26.9 percent since 2008. Median Price rose by 11.2 percent over last January, Re/Max said. Amid upcoming news for the housing the closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 24. Also next week: the house price index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency is slated for release Thursday, Feb. 26, and will include monthly data for December 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2014.