Record low mortgage rates and rising consumer confidence has been helping to give the housing market a lift and helped it become the hottest trade in 2012, CNBC reports.

For example, stock shares of Pulte Homes and Lennar doubled or nearly doubled and helped the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF rise more than 75 percent in 2012.

Housing-related stocks started moving higher earlier on in 2012 as anticipation built over an increase in home prices.

“The homebuilding sector was one of those stories that you knew it would turn around eventually, but it took a heck of a long time,” Mitchell Goldberg, president of ClientFirst Strategy, told CNBC.

Still, despite the rises, the Home Construction ETF index is down more than 60 percent from its peak in 2006.

Source:  http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2013/01/02/housing-called-hottest-trade-2012-0