June 09, 2008 at 11:00 am by Tom Lydon
Real estate exchange traded funds (ETFs) held steady this morning as numbers about pending home sales shot unexpectedly higher.
Pending home sales for April were up 6.3% from March, but sales were still down 13.1% from a year ago, reports Joanne Morrison for Reuters. The National Association of Realtor’s economist says that bargain hunters flooding the market are a major reason for the spike. Economists were expected the sales to fall by 0.5%.
Another economist takes the turnaround as a sign that the housing market could soon be stabilizing. However, for the time being, there’s still some inventory to work through.
Some real estate ETFs that may have better days lying ahead if the housing market continues to show strong numbers:
- iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index Fund (ICF), up 5.8% year-to-date
- First Trust S&P REIT Index Fund (FRI), up 6.1% year-to-date
- DJ Wilshire REIT (RWR), up 5.9% year-to-date
Tags | Real Estate
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