Important releases for homebuilder and REIT investors this week

FOMC meeting behind us

The highlight of last week was the FOMC meeting. We also heard from builders Lennar (LEN) and KB Home (KBH), which gave us a first peek at the spring selling season.

Economic data this week

Monday, March 24

• Chicago Fed National Activity Index
• Markit U.S. Manufacturing PMI

Tuesday, March 25

• Case-Shiller
• New home sales
• Richmond Fed
• Consumer confidence

Wednesday, March 26

• MBA Mortgage Applications
• Durable goods
• Markit PMI
• Markit Services PMI

Thursday, March 27

• Initial jobless claims
• GDP
• Personal consumption
• Bloomberg Consumer Comfort
• Pending home sales
• Kansas City Fed

Friday, March 28

• Personal income
• Personal spending
• University of Michigan Consumer Confidence

Earnings reports this week

• No earnings reports this week

Impact on mortgage REITs

Mortgage REITs like Annaly (NLY), American Capital Agency (AGNC), and MFA Financial (MFA) are highly interest rate–sensitive. Last week’s FOMC meeting was the highlight for them, although they will watch the PMI data as well as the GDP data for clues about economic strength and when short term rates will start going up.

Impact on homebuilders

While last week was a huge one for the builders, we still have a lot of important data this week, with the Case-Shiller Real Estate Index, new home sales, as well as the personal spending and income data.

Impact on commercial REITs

Commercial REITs have quite a bit of data to chew on this week, with the personal income and spending data (relevant to shopping mall REITs) and the ISM data, which will be big for the office REITs like Kilroy (KRC) and Brookfield Office Properties (BPO).