• U.S. equity markets delivered a mixed week as optimism about forthcoming coronavirus vaccines and stellar housing market data was negated by mounting concerns over cascading coronavirus-induced economic shutdowns.
• While the large-cap indexes posted declines on the week, small-cap and mid-cap indexes each delivered another week of strong gains amid an ongoing post-vaccine "sector rotation" pattern.
• Following a historically strong week for the real estate sector, Equity REITs retreated by 1.0% with 12 of 18 property sectors in negative territory. Mortgage REITs, however, jumped another 4.2%.
• A busy slate of housing data this week indicated that the red-hot housing industry has exhibited few signs of cooling into the winter months. Homebuilder Sentiment, Housing Starts, and Existing Home Sales all topped estimates.
• The booming U.S. housing market has been a boon for not only homebuilders and brokers but also home improvement companies. Home Depot commented that "homes have never been more important" for its customers.

Click Here To Read The Full Report on Seeking Alpha!

Disclosure: A complete list of holdings and Real Estate and Housing Index definitions and holdings are available at HoyaCapital.com. Hoya Capital Real Estate advises an Exchange Traded Fund listed on the NYSE. Hoya Capital is long all components in the Hoya Capital Housing 100 Index.

Additional Disclosure: It is not possible to invest directly in an index. Index performance cited in this commentary does not reflect the performance of any fund or other account managed or serviced by Hoya Capital Real Estate. Data quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. Information presented is believed to be factual and up-to-date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy.