Real Estate Leads Amid Virus Fears
- U.S. equity markets dipped this week by the most in four months on concerns of a potential outbreak of a deadly coronavirus that has infected individuals in nearly a dozen countries outside of China.
- The S&P 500 declined 1.0% while oil prices dipped by the most in a year, helping to pull down the 10-year Treasury yield to the lowest level in three months.
- Lower rates and a broader "flight-to-safety" helped to power real estate and other domestic, yield-oriented equity sectors to another week of gains. REITs gained nearly 1% on the week.
- Continuing the theme of 2019, real estate continues to be a source of stability and strength for the domestic economy. Low mortgage rates continue to support robust demand for housing.
- The streak of strong housing data continued with Existing Home Sales data on Wednesday morning. Existing Sales rose 10.8% year-over-year to a 5.54 million-unit rate, beating consensus estimates of 5.43M.
