Dive summary:

• Over the first three quarters of this year, returns on housing companies overall have been sinking, but a breakdown shows that companies related to home-building and the materials for it are doing better than companies tied to apartments.
• One possible explanation is that investors apparently think that apartment dwellers are ready to jump into the home-buying market in which inventory is growing but remains low.
• One sector that is seeing excellent returns as housing comes back is wood-products suppliers.

From the article:

The budding housing recovery is producing big winners and losers among real-estate stocks, with companies related to home construction surging while apartment companies sink. ...