The National Association of Home Builders says its housing market index indicates that single-family home builders are still cautious and concerned about the fragile state of today’s economy as the HMI slipped by one point to 15 in June.

This is the first decline this year. In January, the index dropped to its record low of 8.

The report covers a survey of 548 residential developers nationwide, tracking builders' perceptions of market conditions and an index reading lower than 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market

The index readings for two out of three of the HMI’s component indexes namely current sales conditions and traffic by prospective buyers remained unchanged at 14 and 13 respectively in May. Meanwhile, the index gauging expectations for the next six months declined a single point, to 26.

Regionally, the decline was widely observed in the in the South where the HMI declined three points to 15. It is the nation’s largest housing market. The rest of the regions posted gains where the Northeast had a one-point gain to 20, the Midwest, a one-point gain to 15, and the West with a two-point gain to 14.