what is the nahb wells fargo housing market index hmi 
the nahb wells fargo housing market index hmi is a monthly sentiment survey of members of the national association of home builders nahb the index measures sentiment among builders of u s single family homes and is a widely watched gauge of the u s housing sector since housing represents is a large capital investment and spurs additional consumer spending on appliances and furnishings housing market indices help to monitor the overall health of the economy understanding the nahb wells fargo housing market index hmi the national association of home builders is a federation of more than 700 state and local associations with 140 000 members about one third are home builders and remodelers and the rest professionals from related fields such as mortgage finance and building materials supply nahb builders account for some 80 of the new homes built in the u s 1since 1985 the hmi has been based on a monthly survey completed by nahb builders which was generating some 400 responses as of 2007 2 in completing the survey builders rate housing market conditions and outlook based on their recent experience the hmi is a weighted average of three diffusion indexes designed to range from 0 to 100 hmi readings above 50 reflect a generally favorable market view and outlook in the industry hmi fell to a record low of 8 in january 2009 and set a record high of 90 in november 2020 3mortgage lending discrimination is illegal if you think you ve been discriminated against based on race religion sex marital status use of public assistance national origin disability or age there are steps you can take one such step is to file a report to the consumer financial protection bureau or with the u s department of housing and urban development hud the hmi is a weighted average of three component indices current single family sales the outlook for sales over the next six months and traffic of prospective buyers each month participating builders rate current sales and the six month outlook as good fair or poor and the buyer traffic as high to very high average or low to very low a diffusion index is calculated for each series by applying the formula good poor 100 2 to the present and future sales series and high very high low very low 100 2 to the prospective buyer traffic responses each resulting index is then seasonally adjusted and weighted to generate the hmi the weights are 5920 for present sales 1358 for future sales and 2722 for traffic the weights were chosen based on historical data to maximize the correlation between the hmi and housing starts over the next six months 4the housing market index as an economic indicatorthe hmi displays a close correlation with u s single family housing starts which measure the number of privately owned homes on which construction started in a given month housing starts are a key economic indicator and the report is supplied monthly by the u s census bureau as a gauge of home builder sentiment the hmi provides valuable clues on the near term direction of housing starts the hmi is released at 10 a m est typically on the 11th business day of the month which is the day before the housing starts data are released by the census bureau the hmi has historically closely tracked housing starts and building permits its complete recovery from the depths of the 2008 2009 global financial crisis has outpaced the rebound in housing starts however 5