These days, it’s difficult to have a conversation about residential real estate without addressing the issue of housing affordability.
Getting down to the heart of the matter, many prospective buyers, particularly younger buyers, are priced out of the market
Compounding that issue is the fact that rising yields on Treasury bonds are elevating mortgage rates. Last week, the rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 6.5%. Yet even with that clear headwind, new home sales in March registered a seasonally adjusted rate of 682,000, rising sequentially and year over year.
Data points like that should be a boon for homebuilding equities such as Lennar (NYSE: LEN), but the opposite is true; this industrial stock is down 13.6% year to date. To be sure, that’s a dismal showing and one that looks even worse when considering the broader market and the industrial sector are rallying. Despite the disappointment, there are signs indicating Lennar may be a stock worth building your portfolio with today.