U.S. homebuilders are feeling optimistic about the new single-family home construction market and that can be seen in the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which rose in July to the highest level since January, the Associated Press reports. The improving U.S. job market is raising consumer, and potential homebuyer, confidence in housing, according the index.

In other headlines:

Open Houses Are Strikingly Underutilized – Daily Real Estate News

Blame It on the Rain: Slump in Housing Starts Driven by Record Drop in the South – Wall Street Journal