American residential construction builder confidence falls to its lowest level since 2023, lower than all economists' estimated values.

In May, the confidence of American residential builders fell to the lowest level since the end of 2023, as escalating tariffs on Russian and Japanese goods made pricing homes more difficult and anxious consumers hesitated on purchasing homes. The overall market conditions index, jointly released by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo, dropped by 6 points this month to 34. This data is lower than the estimates of all economists surveyed by Bloomberg. All three sub-indices of the index fell, with the future sales expectation index falling to an 18-month low. The current sales index fell to its lowest level since the end of 2022, while the traffic of potential buyers index hit a one-and-a-half-year low.