OREANDA-NEWS.  A successful spring selling season will provide impetus for U.S. homebuilders in the coming months, according to Fitch Ratings.

Low oil prices, robust employment growth, demographics, pent-up demand, still attractive affordability/housing valuations, and a steady easing in credit standards should sustain the upturn for U.S. housing for the remainder of 2015. These trends should further stimulate housing demand in 2016, despite higher mortgage rates.

Fitch expects generally stable ratings for most issuers within the homebuilding sector as the economy grows at a healthy, consistent pace. There is potential for some positive rating actions or outlooks if the housing recovery performs as expected. Of course, financial performance will vary among issuers, reflecting customer, geographic and product strengths.

Fitch will be discussing this and other market and competitive trends during its quarterly housing and homebuilder conference call, to take place Wednesday afternoon at 2PM ET.

The focus of the conference call will be to discuss first quarter 2015 (1Q'15) and more recent housing data, as well as Fitch's outlook for the U.S. housing sector and expectations for public homebuilders. Managing Director and lead Homebuilding Analyst Robert Curran will be the call leader and provide insights about the outlook for 2015 and 2016, as well as give a brief sector recap for 1Q'15. Curran and Robert Rulla will answer questions after the formal presentation.