National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard addresses the ‘huge decline’ in the homebuilder sentiment index for ‘Varney and Co.’

National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard warned on ” Varney & Co.” Monday was “a tough time” ahead for the construction industry, as figures showed that the housing market has declined.

Howard shared his insights on the same day that it was reported that confidence among builders fell in July due to a rise in inflation and rising rates of interest, which caused a slowdown in the housing market, drastically slowing sales and the flow of buyers looking to buy According to the association.

The confidence of home builders in the market for newly-built single-family homes fell 12 points at 55 during July. This was its seventh month in a row of monthly declines in the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released on Monday.

The index could range from zero and 100, and any reading that is above 50 indicates a positive outlook. Any reading above 80 signals strong demand.

The release of the data on Monday marks one of the lowest HMI measurements since the May of 2020 and is the most significant single-month decline that the index has ever seen except for the 42-point decline during April of 2020 the group stated.

In an interview on ” Varney & Co.” on Monday, Howard stressed that there is no doubt that the numbers are evidence that housing prices are slowing.

“For the last seven straight months it has been going down and this is a huge drop – and I think all it says is, ‘Somebody does something or we’re going to go into a recession,'” Howard stated.

National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard warns of “a tough time” to come for the building industry. (Fox News | IStock)

He also argued that “the “only way to bring down housing costs is to bring down the cost of building materials, fix the supply chain, negotiate a lumber deal with Canada, [and] deregulate some of the regulations that are unnecessary.”

“We hope that policymakers will take this as sort of the last cry for help,” said the man.

The Federal Reserve has been hiking rates in order to curb inflation and it currently sits at a record-setting 40-year-high the hikes have had an impact on the housing market through the form of increased mortgage rates.

While the mortgage rate doesn’t follow the Federal Funds rate, they typically adhere to the yield on a 10-year Treasury.

Jason Haber discusses the shift in the housing market, telling “The Claman Countdown’ that high-interest rates are making homebuyers quit buying.

NAHB chairman Jerry Konter, who is a developer and home builder from Georgia In an announcement the fact that “production bottlenecks, rising home building costs and high inflation are causing many builders to halt construction because the cost of land, construction, and financing exceeds the market value of the home.”

“In another sign of a softening market, 13% of builders in the HMI survey reported reducing home prices in the past month to bolster sales and/or limit cancellations,” he added.

Howard said in his Monday report on Monday that “we’re starting to see slowdowns” with regard to demand.

“All across the country, builders are telling me now that traffic is slowing down. They’re telling me that they’re having people talk about canceling existing contracts,” said the builder. “It is a pretty grim outlook right now from where I sit.”