Some Good News For Housing and ETFs, But It’s Still Mostly Bad
May 16th at 12:00pm by Tom Lydon
The housing sector finally delivered some good news, but so far in trading today the exchange traded funds (ETFs) related to the sector aren’t having it.
Home construction saw its biggest increase in more than two years last month, reports Martin Crutsinger for the Associated Press, jumping by 8.2%. The growth came from a big jump in apartment construction, and the building of single-family homes still weakened by 1.7%.
Economists still predict that housing construction will continue to feel pressure, because there’s still a backlog of unsold homes. The sector’s recovery will be a challenge, too, with the record wave of foreclosures still pouring in and the difficulty in securing a loan.
Even with the improvement last month, home construction was still 30.6% below its level from one year ago.
Homebuilder ETFs were down so far in trading today:
- SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB), up 14.6% year-to-date
- iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB), up 11.6% year-to-date
