When faced with 17 consecutive quarters of clouds, it makes sense that any silver lining will draw attention.

In the first quarter of the year, credit conditions for residential land acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) loans continued tightening, with its net easing index coming in at -2.7, according to survey results released Friday by the National Association of Home Builders.

But, as Paul Emrath noted in the association’s Eye on Housing economic research blog, “although still negative (indicating that credit tightened since 2025 Q4), this is the closest the index has come to zero in the last four years.”

The survey asks builders and developers whether the availability of AD&C credit has improved, worsened or stayed the same since the previous quarter. The results are tracked so positive numbers indicate tightening of credit, with larger numbers indicating more widespread tightening.

Similar to the NAHB’s index from a survey of borrowers, the Federal Reserve surveys lenders with a net easing index, called the Senior Loan Officer Survey. It posted a -4.9 first-quarter reading, which Emrath described as “similarly still negative but fairly close to zero.”

The Fed considers anything between -5.0 and +5.0 as “essentially unchanged,” Emrath noted in the post, adding that “this marks the 17th consecutive quarter that both Fed and NAHB indices have been in negative territory.”