U.S. housing market index falls in April-NAHB

U.S. home builder sentiment, an important measure of the housing market, fell in April but was well within the strong range of the past 14 months, the National Association of Home Builders reported on Monday.

The NAHB said its housing market index registered a seasonally adjusted 67 in April, down from an upwardly revised reading of 70 in March.

"Favorable market conditions and the appeal of homeownership continue to fuel demand," David Seiders, NAHB's chief economist, said in a statement. "Many builders are reporting higher lot prices and some difficulty in finding available land -- both symptoms of strong demand for new homes."

A reading above 50 indicates more than half of builders surveyed view sales conditions as favorable rather than poor.

The NAHB's index of buyer traffic was at a seasonally adjusted 50 in April, versus an upwardly revised 52 the prior month. The current sales index was at 73, versus 76 in March.

The index of builder expectations for the next six months was at 76 in April versus 79 the previous month, NAHB said.

Seiders said the NAHB expects both home sales and home values to remain healthy in coming months.

While fixed mortgages rates have moved lower in recent weeks amid a slew of economic data showing a slowdown in the U.S. economy, the overall trend for mortgage rates has been higher in recent months.

"We are still at very favorable rates for housing ... but there tends to be a lag of about six to nine months between time interest rates start to rise and when a substantial impact on home sales and housing starts," said Michael Carliner, NAHB's vice president of economics,

"When it comes to rising interest rates, we tend not to see an immediate impact in terms of home sales, although it might affect builders' expectation's immediately," he said.

More data on the U.S. housing market will come on Tuesday, with the Commerce Department scheduled to release March housing starts.

The median forecast of 30 Wall Street analysts and investment banks surveyed by Reuters puts housing starts at 2.090 million annualized units, down from February's 2.195 million annualized units.