WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The National Association of Home Builders said Monday that U.S. builder confidence remained at its lowest level since January 1985.
The monthly Housing Market Index tracking builder confidence remained at nine, where it was last month, the association said.
"While builders are doing everything we can in the way of price and non-price incentives to move new homes off the books, buyers are afraid to move forward," the association's Chairman Sandy Dunn said in a statement.
"In any case," Dunn said, "there is almost no way to compete with the cut-rate product that is continually flooding the market from mounting foreclosures."
"At this point it will take definitive government action to stop the slide in home values and turn the tide of consumer sentiment," NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said.
Regionally, the index fell in the South and Midwest, held even in the Northeast and edged up one point in the West, rising to 7, the report said.
The index uses 50 as a break-even point. The index climbs higher than 50 when a majority of builders in a survey indicate business conditions are "good" and falls below 50 when a majority indicates business conditions are "bad."
