If you're interested in broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Broad segment of the equity market, look no further than the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on May 1, 2006.
While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.
Sector ETFs are also funds of convenience, offering many ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Consumer Discretionary - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 4, placing it in top 25%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $2.58 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Discretionary - Broad segment of the equity market. ITB seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Home Construction Index before fees and expenses.
The Dow Jones U.S. Select Home Construction Index comprises of U.S. equities in the home construction sector.
Costs
Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.38%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.67%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector -- about 76.3% of the portfolio. Industrials and Materials round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, D R Horton Inc (DHI) accounts for about 14.69% of total assets, followed by Pultegroup Inc (PHM) and Lennar A Corp Class A (LEN).The top 10 holdings account for about 65.47% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has lost about 0.89% so far this year and is up about 8.02% in the last one year (as of 04/14/2026). In that past 52-week period, it has traded between $87.28 and $117.14.
The ETF has a beta of 1.38 and standard deviation of 27.04% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 50 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.
Alternatives
iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF sports a Zacks ETF Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. ITB, then, is not the best option for investors seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs segment of the market. However, there are better ETFs in the space to consider.
Vanguard Consumer Discretionary Index Fund ETF Shares (VCR) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Discretionary 25/50 Index and the State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY) tracks Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index. Vanguard Consumer Discretionary Index Fund ETF Shares has $5.86 billion in assets, State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF has $22.05 billion. VCR has an expense ratio of 0.09%, and XLY charges 0.08%.
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).