SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (NYSEArca: XHB) is up more than 50% so far this year to its highest level since 2007 as the latest data on home prices released Tuesday shows the housing market continues to recover.
The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite index rose 1.2% in July from a year ago. U.S. home prices rose for the fourth straight month to the highest level in nearly two years, MarketWatch reports.
“We’re finally seeing a more sustained and broad-based improvement in home prices,” said Millan Mulraine, senior U.S. strategist for TD Securities, in a Bloomberg report. “The housing sector has made an important turn here, and that is being sustained.”
XHB and iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction Index Fund (NYSEArca: ITB) are both up more than 10% the past month. ITB is outperforming its rival in 2012 with a rally of more than 70%.
“All in all, we are more optimistic about housing. Upbeat trends continue,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. [Homebuilder ETFs Rally on Housing Data]
SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF
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