Housing Sector: Housing and Etf

housing sector: The iShares Home Construction ETF ITB, -0.71% has gained 17.7%, so far in 2019, while the comparable SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF XHB, 0.03% has returned roughly 19.3%, outstripping 11.6% year-to-date gains for the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.05% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.28% which boasts a 12% climb, according to Market Watch. Of course, shares of those housing funds were slumping Tuesday, with the iShares ETF and the SPDR fund down by at least 0.6%, after investors were presented with a number of worrying data on the housing sector. Housing shares are poised for their second-best yearly return of the past seven years, according to Fact Set data, even as popular home-building exchange-traded funds were sliding on the day after a barrage of weaker housing data. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that new-home construction declined by 11% to its lowest level since 2016. Meanwhile, housing-sensitive Home Depot Inc. On top of that, the Case-Shiller home price index grew by 4.2% in December, below economists expectations, and at the slowest rate since housing prices bottomed in 2012. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.