Dive summary:

• The National Association of Home Builders' monthly survey takes the temperature of hoe builders see things going in the next few months, and it dropped from 44 in March to 42 this month, moving back toward last October's 41.
• Economists had predicted a tick upward to 45, but builders evidently see more problems with rising materials prices they have to pay and tight credit for themselves and their customers than do the professional analysts.
• The way the index is built, a reading of 50 or above indicates majority optimism based on three criteria, and the index had been moving in that direction lately, though it has not actually hit the midpoint of its 100-point scale in seven years.

From the article:

At the height of the last decade's building bubble, readings were in the high 60s and low 70s. ...