The charts below show three common indexes for US housing stocks. They were up last year in the range of 31% to 75% while the S&P 500 Index was up 19.4%.
This year, however, the indexes are down 10-21% and the Home Construction Index is in a bear market territory, if one uses 20% decline from the top as the threshold level.
The S&P 500 Index is up 9.6% year to date. I think it is worrisome to see such extremes in performance between years, especially given the importance of housing stocks for the broad market.
