Real Estate Daily Recap: REITs End February Flat, Homebuilders Jump 4.6% on the Month

The REIT ETFs (VNQ and IYR) ended the day modestly higher and ended the month of February up by 0.6% following a 13% surge in January. On the day, student housing REITs led the way, followed by storage and cell tower REITs. The S&P 500 ended the day down 0.2% as the 10-Year climbed 2 basis points.

The homebuilder ETFs (XHB and ITB) retreated more than 1% on the day, dragging down the broader Hoya Capital Housing 100 Index. Residential REITs were the lone housing sector in positive territory for the day, led by American Campus (ACC), Extra Space (EXR), and Park (PK). Real estate technology firm Redfin (RDFN) also delivered a strong day, climbing by nearly 2%.

For the week, REITs are down by 1.2%, threatening to end their streak of seven consecutive weeks of gains. Homebuilders are off by nearly 5%. The real estate technology & brokerage sector is down by more than 6% on the week following weak results yesterday from Realogy (RLGY).