Builder Confidence Rises in May but Affordability Stays Broken

The NAHB Housing Market Index rose three points in May, a modest improvement after months of flat or declining readings. The piece covers builder confidence in the new single-family market, framing the uptick against persistent headwinds: mortgage rates still elevated, buyers sitting on the sideline, and builders absorbing rising land, labor, and material costs with limited ability to pass them through to price-sensitive buyers. Relevant to anyone pricing residential work right now.

Three points on the HMI is not a recovery signal. It is a data point that moves every month, and right now it is moving in a direction that does not match what is happening on the cost side. Land costs are up. Labor is tight. And the tariff-driven materials surge documented through April means the spread between what a builder can charge and what a project actually costs is narrowing, not widening. GC estimators pricing residential work should be escalating more aggressively in their bids, not less, and pushing hard on schedule certainty in subcontracts. A market where buyers are uncertain is also a market where developers delay starts and cancel contracts mid-preconstruction. Price accordingly.

Read the full story at NAHB Eye on Housing.

Tracking which residential developers are still actively bidding versus going quiet is something estimators increasingly have to manage at the subcontractor level too. Comms Center gives you a real-time view of bid status across every active pursuit, so you know which trades have acknowledged, which have gone dark, and where your coverage is thin before bid day arrives. Learn more at commscenter.com.