Unusual call activity (26:1 over puts) is also being seen in the iShares US Real Estate ETF...
$IYR up $1.07 to $83.74.
Call volume currently stands at 25,179 contracts, 9x the daily average.
Most of today's call volume can be attributed to a large call vertical spread that was sold 12,000 times in the September 15th expiration week. The strikes at play were the September 15th 85.00 and 87.50 strikes.
The trader sold these call vertical spreads at a price of $0.60 when the B/A spread was $0.57 x $0.67 (suggesting bearish intent).
Open interest coming into the day was only 6,500 contracts, collectively, so it appears that these are opening transactions.
The median home sales price is $416,100 as of the second quarter of 2023. That's a 26% increase from 2020, when the median was $329,000.
Inventory is low, driving prices higher, IMO bc homeowners do not want to jeopardize their low interest rate from past mortgages with the current national average:
30 year fixed rate at ~8.1%.
15 year fixed rate at ~7.15%
10/6 ARM ~7.8%
