- Alex Pettee, CFA
Real Estate Weekly Review: REITs And Builders Climb Despite Rough Week For Stocks
Following a down week, REITs and Homebuilders resumed their impressive 2019 rallies. REITs climbed for the eighth week in the past nine as interest rates declined on mixed economic data.
Homebuilders jumped more than 2% on the week, pushing their 2019 gains back above 13%. Housing data has been all over the map, but forward-looking metrics have been strong.
The broader equity market had their worst week of 2019 as concerns mounted over slowing global growth. The US has seemingly reasserted itself as the engine of the world economy.
US job growth came up well shy of expectations in February, but wage growth accelerated to the fastest rate since 2009. Declining inflation has led to robust real wage growth.
Housing and construction data revealed that single family housing building slowed more significantly than thought in late-2018 as long-delayed data got released. Declining mortgage rates, however, have brightened the outlook.
