12 REITs Ready To Rise On A Housing Recovery

By Vatalyst: What could be better than a double digit return on a security? Low interest rates have been a boon for mREITs. That is, residential mortgage real estate investment trusts (mREITs). Equities that are classified as mREITs often hold non-agency and agency mortgages. An mREIT with agency securities has government sponsored enterprise (GSE) backed mortgages for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by the United States government.

By Ron Hiram:My prior articles focused on master limited partnerships ("MLPs"), an area I have long followed and invested in. My concern with overly concentrating my portfolio in MLPs has led me to examine mortgage Real Estate Investment Trusts ("mREITs") as an alternative yield producing vehicle.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s efforts to revive housing are making real estate bulls even more bullish. JPMorgan Chase & Co. more than doubled its forecast for U.S. home price gains in 2013 to 7% this week, and predicts a more than 14% increase through 2015. Bank of America Corp. said last week property values will jump 8% this year, up from a prior estimate of 4.7% in a report titled “Someone say house party?”

By Osman Gulseven: By Siraj Sarwar American Capital Agency (AGNC) is one of the most popular stocks among income-oriented investors. As a mortgage-backed real estate investment trust, American Capital invests in collateralized mortgage obligations and agency pass-through securities.

As expected earlier, today's December Case Shiller data came and went and nobody cared. Perhaps because it is three months delayed, perhaps because it posted an increase in the NSA top 20 city composite at a time when all the previous data was supposedly contracting due to snow in the winter, to the Sandy endless aftermath, or due to the Fiscal Cliff, or perhaps just because the NSA increase (and remember: Case Shiller itself says one should use not adjusted data for an accurate sense of what is going on) was so tiny (0.16%) that nobody cared.

Home prices climbed more than forecast in October, indicating a rebounding real-estate market will bolster the U.S. economy for the first time in seven years. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities increased 4.3% from October 2011, the biggest 12-month advance since May 2010, the group said today in New York. The median forecast of 30 economists in a Bloomberg survey projected a 4% gain. The housing market is definitely starting to recover

By Qineqt:It has just been over a month since the Fed announced the launch of the much-awaited third round of easing (QE3) to stimulate the sluggish U.S. economy, which was showing no signs of respite, despite previous efforts made by the U.S. Central Bank. Much has been said about the impact of this new round of easing on mortgage REITs.

By Todd Johnson:Investors should consider a key technical factor when buying mortgage real estate investment trusts (mREITs). The constant prepayment rate (CPR) will play a key role in determining the level of mREIT's quarterly dividends. The higher the CPR, all other aspects remaining the same, the lower the mREIT's dividend will be. This issue makes American Capital Agency Corp.