Washington D.C. -- Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes increased five points to a level of 74 in December on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) after a downwardly revised November reading. This was the highest report since July 1999, over 18 years ago.

"Housing market conditions are improving partially because of new policies aimed at providing regulatory relief to the business community," said Granger MacDonald, NAHB chairman.

Robert Dietz, NAHB chief economist, added, "The HMI measure of home buyer traffic rose eight points, showing that demand for housing is on the rise. With low unemployment rates, favorable demographics and a tight supply of existing home inventory, we can expect continued upward movement of the single-family construction sector next year."

All three HMI components registered gains in December. The component measuring buyer traffic jumped eight points to 58, the index gauging current sales conditions rose four points to 81 and the index charting sales expectations in the next six months increased three points to 79.

Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the Midwest climbed six points to 69, the South rose three points to 72, the West increased two points to 79 and Northeast inched up a single point to 54.

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