Invest in homebuilding stocks “back then?”
Admittedly it would have taken nerves of steel, intestinal fortitude and remarkable foresight not to duck and cover as debris rained down from imploding financial houses such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.
But it’s been a good few years for those who could see far enough through the dust of late 2008.
In fact, a sampling of five publicly traded homebuilder stocks shows that an investment of $1,000 in the top performing company would, as of January 28, 2013, be worth $8,770.
Even the same $1,000 in the laggard performer of the five companies would have more than doubled to $2,390.
And spreading $5,000 evenly in each of the five would have yielded a median return of 167%, or now be worth $13,150.
By far the best performance was notched by Lennar Corp., the 777% return, followed by DR Horton at 346%. Toll Brothers, which specializes in higher-end housing, recorded a 163% increase.
