U.S. home builders’ confidence sank to a 15-year low this month, as lenders made it more difficult for borrowers to qualify for mortgages and order cancellations mounted, the National Association of Home Builders said.

Reuters reported that the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index dropped three points to 30 in May, matching the 15-year low set in September 2006.

Builder confidence has eroded each month since reaching 39 in February, before defaults and foreclosures started escalating on loans to borrowers with poor credit histories.

“The crisis in the subprime sector has infected other parts of the mortgage market as well as consumer psychology, and as a result the housing outlook has deteriorated,” NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders said in a statement accompanying the index.

The NAHB projects that home sales and building will not start improving until late this year. Early stages of a rebound will be “quite sluggish,” the group said.