Investors are betting big that the battered and bruised housing market is finally on the road to recovery, nearly five years after the bubble burst.
In fact, Americans bought new homes in May at the fastest pace in more than two years, when buyers were benefiting from the federal home-buying tax credit.
Part of the reason is that banks have started to ease their lending standards, so it's becoming easier to for homebuyers qualify for a mortgage, said Paul Weisbruch, head of ETF/options sales and trading at Street One Financial.
The housing fund, which includes homebuilders like D.R. Horton (DHI), Lennar (LEN) and Toll Brothers (TOL) in its top holdings, as well as improvement giants like Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW), has rallied in recent weeks to its highest levels since 2008.
A mixture of accounting moves and rosy assumptions appears to harpooned JPMorgan's huge trading loss.
