Hoya Capital Real Estate Launches HOMZ, The Housing ETF
There is a quirky back-story to the team behind Hoya Capital Real Estate’s new ETF, HOMZ. It is being launched by a recent Georgetown University alum and his college professor, giving it a unique “from classroom to trading floor” angle.
Housing is the single largest expenditure for the average American household and one of the most important asset classes out there and yet there are no good ways of getting exposure to it without taking the plunge and buying a home yourself, that is until now. Hoya Capital Real Estate, a newcomer to the ETF industry, has launched the first and only ETF designed to serve as a benchmark and investment vehicle for the entire US housing sector.
The new Hoya Capital Housing ETF (HOMZ) is thoughtfully built to capture all corners of the US housing sector, combining traditional REITs and home builders with more modern real estate technology and home improvement companies, all in a diversified fund of 100 securities.
Alex Pettee, CFA, President of Hoya Capital Real Estate, makes the case that HOMZ provides younger investors and “rent-by-choice” households a cost-effective way to get exposure to an important asset class that is “out-of-reach” for many; and for existing homeowners and institutional investors, HOMZ is the most efficient way to establish a directional view on the US housing market or to hedge an existing exposure.
Bottom Line: Housing is the single largest annual expenditure for the average American household and up to this point there hasn’t been an ETF designed to capture this entire asset class effectively.
Please find the press release with further details below.
Hoya Capital Launches HOMZ, The Housing ETF
The Hoya Capital Housing ETF (Ticker: HOMZ) Offers Exposure to One of The Largest Asset Classes in the World
CONNECTICUT– March 20, 2019 — Hoya Capital Real Estate, a research-focused investment advisor specializing in real estate securities, today announced the launch of HOMZ, the first exchange traded fund (ETF) to offer diversified exposure across the entire US housing sector.
“The US Housing market is one of the largest, and arguably the most important, asset class in the world,” said Alex Pettee, CFA, President of Hoya Capital Real Estate. “We believe HOMZ has the potential to be the new barometer for the performance of the US housing sector. By offering representative exposure to transformative sectors like real estate technology, we believe that HOMZ provides a modernized and highly intuitive evolution in the homebuilding and real estate categories.”
Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, HOMZ seeks to track the Hoya Capital Housing 100 Index, a rules-based index designed to track the 100 companies that collectively represent the performance of the US housing sector including home builders, home rental operators, home services and technology firms, and home improvement companies.
Housing is the single largest annual expenditure for the average American household, accounting for a third of average annual spending. Housing costs, as measured by the CPI inflation index, have outpaced average wage growth in every year since 2012, pushing traditional homeownership farther out of reach for millions of households.
“At inception, HOMZ was conceived as a way for the 100 million renters in America to gain access to an asset class that was previously out of reach, as well as a way for homeowners to diversify their concentrated housing-related exposure,” Pettee continued. “With housing costs and rents continuing to rise, we think that HOMZ could be a core component of millions of household’s asset allocation. We think that financial advisors will potentially find this ETF to be a compelling solution for their clients who are impacted by rising rents and housing costs.”
Hoya Capital sees potential interest in HOMZ from institutional investors as well. “For institutional investors, we believe that HOMZ is potentially the most efficient way to express a directional view on the US housing market or to hedge an existing exposure,” says Professor Jonathan Morris, Executive Vice President of Hoya Capital and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. “Institutions hold trillions of dollars of housing-related assets and liabilities. By offering representative exposure to the US housing sector, we think HOMZ addresses a significant investment need for both institutions and individuals.”
HOMZ, which expects to distribute dividends monthly*, is the first ETF from Hoya Capital Real Estate. “We founded Hoya Capital Real Estate with the mission of making real estate more accessible to all investors,” Pettee continued. “We think HOMZ has the potential to fundamentally disrupt the US housing industry by lowering the hurdle for efficient access to equity ownership of the housing sector.” For more information, please visit www.TheHousingETF.com.
About Hoya Capital Real Estate
Hoya Capital Real Estate is a research-focused Registered Investment Advisor based in Rowayton, Connecticut. Leaders in commercial and residential real estate analysis, Hoya Capital is among the most widely-read and cited publishers of real estate commentary and research. For more information, please visit www.HoyaCapital.com.
Note: This article was originally published at ValueWalk.com. It was contributed by Jacob Wolinsky.
Category: ETFs
