USRT News and Press, iShares Core U.S. REIT From 01/12/23

Summary The main determinants of housing demand in the short run are the level and direction of mortgage rates and the strength of the job market. Homebuilders have responded to the drop in new home sales by reducing housing starts, and this response is likely to continue this year, unt...

Summary Mortgage applications to purchase a home are a forward-looking indicator of where home sales volume will be. Mortgage lenders have spent the last 12 months laying off people and shutting down divisions. Some smaller operations have shut down entirely. What the real estate an...

Summary The cost of the mortgage payment to live in the median new home sold in November 2022 would consume 46.3% of the wages and salaries earned by a household in the middle of all income-earners in the U.S. The ratio of median household income to the median new home sale price droppe...

Summary Arguably one of the greatest frustrations for investors over the past year of rampant inflation was the dismal performance of real assets regarded as inflation hedges and their positive correlations to the returns of nominal assets, such as conventional government bonds. Even th...

Summary Manufactured Housing REITs snapped an incredible streak of nine straight years of outperformance over the REIT Index in 2022, impacted by headwinds from higher interest rates and hurricane-related disruptions. Despite their REIT-leading growth rates, Manufactured Housing ("MH") ...

Summary The U.S. new home market enters 2023 in distress. Political Calculations' initial estimate of the market capitalization of new homes for November 2022, the data for which was released just before the holidays, is $25.35 billion. This time-shifted, trailing-year average is 15...

Summary On a coincident basis, driven by a historically tight labour market and robust industrial production growth, the US economy remains deceptively strong despite negative real incomes and tight financial conditions. However, the leading indicators of the business cycle continue to ...

Summary The REIT sector ended a brutal 2022 on a low note, with a -7.72% total return in December. Large cap (-4.89%), mid cap (-6.03%) and small cap (-8.21%) REITs all averaged single-digit declines December, but micro caps (-15.21%) fell much more sharply. Only 8.02% of REIT secur...

Summary U.S. equity markets rallied on the first week of the year after employment data showed strong job growth alongside a cool down in wage pressures, reviving hopes of a 'soft landing'. After posting declines of nearly 20% in 2022, the S&P 500 advanced 1.5% on the week- snapping...

Summary Whether viewed by home sales (demand) or housing starts (supply), the US housing market downshifted significantly during 2022. Low mortgage rates, combined with a spurt in economic growth and the ability of many workers to do their jobs remotely, pushed housing demand up sharply...