As Home Prices Jump, Housing Stocks Sag

Investing.com - The housing market may be hot, but housing stocks are decidedly cold.Share prices peaked in late January and began to decline as mortgage rates began to rise.Two popular exchange traded funds for the sector are down significantly from their 2018 highs and are underperforming the broader market.The iShares Home Construction ETF is off 9.45%, while the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE:XHB) ETF is down 11.0%.Shares in the two big home improvement companies, Home Depot (NYSE:HD) and Lowe's, have suffered similar declines.By comparison, the S&P 500 is down about 5.00% during the same period of time.Though demand for new homes is high, homebuilders are fighting a number of headwinds in addition to higher mortgage rates, including shortages of available land and skilled workers and rising material costs.