BBRE News and Press, JPMorgan BetaBuilders MSCI U.S. REIT ETF From 07/17/19

By Raymond Jacobs, Managing Director, Franklin Real Asset Advisors; Marc Weidner, Managing Director, Franklin Real Asset Advisors; Woon Pin Chong, Managing Director, Franklin Real Asset Advisors Many observe the impacts of e-commerce growth as decimating commercial retail properties, leav...

Homebuilder sentiment for July saw a modest bounce, rising from 64 up to 65 compared to expectations for a reading of 64. While sentiment has seen a nice improvement from its late 2018 low, builders are nowhere near as optimistic right now as they were right before the GOP tax bill - which lim...

I wanted to revisit one graph, because I think it tells the story so well about what's happening in many US cities while lending standards are tight. In the process, I realized that I should have adjusted for inflation, and in the process of doing that, I realized I had a minor excel workshe...

Following up our analysis of the market for existing homes in the U.S., preliminary and revised data suggests that falling mortgage rates have coincided with a reversal in the late-2018, early-2019 decline in new home sales. The following chart tracking the trailing-twelve-month average of...

Since peaking in late November 2018, mortgage rates in the United States have fallen sharply, dropping by more than a percentage point from a peak of an average of 4.87% to 3.83% in June 2019. For existing home sales, the falling interest rates have roughly coincided with a rebound in the ...

Housing Starts Housing starts rose in May to an annual rate of 1.269 million, which was better than expected, with upward revisions to the prior two months that totaled 77,000. The strength is in multi-family units, which were up 13.7% year over year. Single-family home building starts wer...

By Robert Hughes Housing construction activity was mixed in May as starts fell by 0.9 percent while permits for future construction rose 0.3 percent. Total housing starts dropped to a 1.269 million annual rate from a 1.281 million pace in April. The dominant single-family segment, which ac...

All asset "wealth" in credit-asset bubble dependent economies is contingent and ephemeral. A funny thing happens to "wealth" in a bubble economy: it only remains "wealth" if the owner sells at the top of the bubble and invests the proceeds in an asset which isn't losing purchasing power....

REIT Performance After achieving gains in the first 4 months of 2019, REITs dipped slightly in May (-0.98%). However, the average REIT still maintains an impressive year-to-date return of 17.22%. REITs weathered the May market selloff much better than the broader market did, as the NASDAQ ...

Housing market conclusion: While the data became moderately softer during 2018, the market is healthy. A strong jobs market is supporting consumer demand. Interest rates have dropped since the beginning of the year. The supply situation is far more controlled during this expansion; builders ...