Dive summary:

• The National Association of Home Builders has calculated its August confidence index among member builders, and the national number is up for the fourth month in a row, to 59 now, and is making the long slog up to the 50 mark seem long ago.
• No way should national ebullience be mistaken as everyone's story, however – the confidence index for the association's Northeast region is stuck at 39, far below the 50 level that indicates majority optimism for the coming months.
• The national figure, officially known as the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, is the best in eight years, NAHB said, with two of its three components – current sales conditions and sales expectations – at 62 and 68, respectively.

From the release:

“Builders are seeing more motivated buyers walk through their doors than they have in quite some time,” said NAHB Chairman Rick Judson, a home builder from Charlotte, N.C.  ...