The NAHB homebuilder confidence index reported a score of 56 in January, a one-point decline from the downwardly revised score of 57 in December. "Following an unexpected jump last month, builder confidence has essentially leveled out and is holding at a solid level," said NAHB chairman Rick Judson. Index scores above 50 indicate builder perceptions of the market are more positive than negative.

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes fell one point to 56 in January from an downwardly revised December reading of 57 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today.

"Rising home prices, historically low mortgage rates and significant pent-up demand will drive a continuing, gradual recovery in the year ahead," said NAHB chief economist David Crowe.???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+ "However, the pace of the recovery could be stronger were it not for rising construction costs and inaccurate appraisals that are keeping some home sales from going through."

All three HMI components declined in January. The index measuring current sales conditions edged one point lower to 62, while the index gauging expectations for future sales fell two points to 60. The index gauging prospective buyer traffic fell to 40, a three-point decline.

The HMI measures builder perceptions of current single-family home sales, sales expectations for the next six months and prospective buyer traffic. Scores for each component are used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

HMI data is available at???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+nahb.org/hmi.???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+