3 Stocks Set to Benefit From Existing Home Sales Data

[cnxvideo id=”625493″ placement=”ros”]Existing home sales data out of the United States last week revealed the strongest growth rate since the beginning of 2007. The data showed a 1.1% increase between May and June, an adjusted rate of 5.57 million, and suggests that despite a miss on the Philly Fed data, the U.S. economy is fundamentally resilient. It also bodes well for real estate stocks. Here are some companies that benefit from existing home sales growth.

Let’s kick things off with Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD). The home improvement store has been a top performer over the past decade, up just over 300% since 2006, and that includes the housing crash. With more people buying and selling existing homes, chances are we will see a continuation of this trend.

When people move into existing homes, redecoration, renovation and personalization are generally priorities, and Home Depot is the big name in each of these categories. The company generated over $88 billion revenues during full year 2015, for a net income of $7 billion, its highest in each of the past three years.

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Moving on, Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL). When existing home sales rise, it’s a leading indicator of a coming rise in new home sales. Many people selling, minus hedge fund buyers and flippers, will need somewhere to move to, and this means new construction. Toll Brothers is one of the leading housing construction companies in the United States, with a specialty focus on the luxury end of the market. The company just reported second-quarter 2016 earnings and beat out on expectations pretty much across the board, with revenues coming in at $1.1 billion, for a net income of $89 million. As fresh construction kicks in toward the end of the summer, further expansion across the next two to three quarters is likely.

Finally, AvalonBay Communities Inc. (NYSE: AVB). AvalonBay is a multifamily community stock, currently trading at a market capitalization of a little over $25 billion. The company buys community housing real estate, with the goal of renovating the properties that real estate covers and then reselling them to new owners. Beyond this buy/sell operation, it also manages and operates the real estate. It has around 75,000 homes in its portfolio as things stand, spread across more than 250 communities, primarily in the Northeast and eastern seaboard.

Last year, AvalonBay pulled in record revenues of $1.85 billion, for a net income at year end of $741 million. It has around $16 billion worth of property on its balance sheet as of March 31. This one ties directly with existing home sales, and so with the recent data beating expectations, chances are we will see a continued upward trend in Avalon as well.

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