The National Association of Home Builders reports home builder confidence in December nationwide reached a six-year high. It reached a level of 47 on the index, the highest since April 2006. The December level was also a two-point gain from the previous month and the eighth consecutive month builder confidence has risen on the index.
New home sales throughout Maricopa and Pinal counties have soared more than 85 percent year-over-year, according to October data released by Arizona State University, while permits for newly built homes have jumped 65 percent year-over-year in October, according to RL Brown in Phoenix.
The upward trend in the new home market has been encouraging for local home builders, who have been looking to take advantage of rising demand by raising capital to buy land (while it’s still inexpensive) and ramp up construction. Wall Street has recently been a popular source of capital for home builders, such as Scottsdale-based Taylor Morrison Home Corp., which filed for a $250 million initial public offering of its stock earlier this month.
