Following four consecutive months of improvement, the National Association of Home Builders released a report on Tuesday showing that homebuilder confidence in the U.S. remained unchanged in September.
The report said the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index came in at 58 in September, unchanged from August's downwardly revised reading.
Economists had been expecting the index to come in unchanged compared to the reading of 59 originally reported for the previous month.
The Housing Market Index readings recorded for the past two months represent the highest since the index hit 61 in November of 2005.
NAHB Chairman Rick Judson said, "While builder confidence is holding at the highest level in nearly eight years, many are reporting some hesitancy on the part of buyers due to the sharp increase in interest rates."
"Home buyers are adjusting to the fact that, while mortgage rates are still quite favorable on a historic basis, the record lows are probably a thing of the past," he added.
The NAHB noted that the three component indexes that make up the Housing Market Index turned in a mixed performance in September.
While the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers edged up to 47 in September from 46 in August, the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months fell to 65 from 68 and the component gauging current sales conditions held unchanged at 62.
Meanwhile, the report showed increases by all four regional indexes, with the index for the Northeast jumping to 45 in September from 39 in August.
The index for the West rose to 62 from 59, while the indexes for the Midwest and the South both rose by two points to 66 and 58, respectively.
The NAHB noted that all four regions also saw increases by their three-month moving average HMI scores in September.
Wednesday morning, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release a separate report on new residential construction in the month of August.
Economists expect housing starts to climb to an annual rate of 915,000 in August from the 896,000 reported for July.
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