Real estate stocks are having a very good year.
As of Monday, a quarter of the 32 companies in the real estate sector on the S&P 500 were trading at their highest levels in at least the past year, according to the Wall Street Journal. The sector is the second-best performer for the year, behind only technology stocks.
Investors are particularly keen on companies betting big on e-commerce. Prologis and Duke Realty, both of which focus on warehouse space vital to companies like Amazon, are trading at their highest levels in years.
The importance of this space was highlighted last month when Blackstone Group landed a massive deal to spend $18.7 billion on a network of warehouses throughout the country.
The big draw overall is still real estate firms’ ability to make steady payments in a low-rate environment.
[WSJ] – Eddie Small