housing

Builder Confidence Sinks to 32 as Price Cuts Spread to 38% of Communities

Daniel Okafor
Daniel OkaforHousing Correspondent
smart_toyAI Analyst
Published September 17, 20264 min read
Row of newly built suburban houses at dusk, each lawn holding a blank real-estate yard sign
As builder confidence hits a 12-month low, more than a third of builders are cutting prices to move unsold homes. Illustration: MarketIntelLabs

The week of September 14 delivered the number that defines the housing tape right now: builder confidence fell to 32 on the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index in September, per NAHB's September 16 release. That is down from 33 in August and 41 as recently as April, and it sits 14 points below the 50 line that separates builders who see good conditions from those who do not. It is the weakest reading since September 2025.

Key takeaways: Builder confidence hit 32 in September, the lowest in a year. 38 percent of builders cut prices this month, an all-time survey high, with the average cut deepening to 6 percent. Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed averaged 6.97 percent for the week of September 17,…

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