Multifamily Stock Index Still Showing Relative Strength
During February, the MFSI fell by 1 point — less than 0.1%. With this decrease, the MFSI is 13% off its all-time high, and is about 5.5% lower than a year ago. During the past month, the S&P 500 with dividends fell by 1.5% — much more than the MFSI — and is now almost 23% lower than a year ago. Because the MFSI barely fell while the S&P 500 with dividends dropped by 1.5%, the percentage difference between the two indexes rose from 90% to 93%, a level surpassed on only three previous occassions. Despite recent weakness in the MFSI during the past year, it has dramatically outperformed the S&P 500 over the past one, two, three, and four year time periods.

Since December 1998, the MFSI has risen by nearly 40%, while the S&P 500 with dividends has fallen by 27.6%.  During November, the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of the MFSI edged up from 16.24 to 16.31, while the dividend yield — defined as the total cash dividend payments divided by the current stock price — fell from 7.87% to 7.67% 

The MFSI is an index of 29 publicly traded US headquartered firms principally involved in multifamily ownership and management. [ return to top ]