High Foreclosures Hurt Financial and Home-related ETFs
August 21st at 11:27am by Tom Lydon
As record home foreclosures occur around the country, it’s no wonder financial and home-related exchange traded funds (ETFs) are suffering. Foreclosure filings rose 9% from June to July and surged 93% from the same time last year, reports Alex Veiga for the Associated Press. Nevada, Georgia and Michigan had the highest foreclosure rates nationwide, according to research-firm RealtyTrac. The filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. A total of 179,599 foreclosure filings were reported nationwide during July, which is up from 92,845 reported in July of last year.
As we keep an eye on foreclosures, Financial Select SPDR (XLF), SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB) and iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate (IYR) will be most affected. However, there’s always the chance that the Federal Reserve will intervene again, in hopes of easing the housing and financial markets’ pain.
Year-to-date, XLF is down 6.5%, XHB is down 32.5% and IYR is down 10.8%.
