NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Jun 1, 2012) - Despite a rocky U.S. housing market shares of high yielding REITs have performed well in 2012, as they continue to take advantage of record low mortgage rates. The Vanguard REIT ETF -- which tracks the performance of an index that measures the performance of publicly traded equity REITs -- is up nearly 10 percent this year, outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial. Five Star Equities examines the outlook for diversified REITs and provides equity research on American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ: [ AGNC ]) and CYS Investments Inc. (NYSE: [ CYS ]).

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[ www.FiveStarEquities.com/AGNC ]
[ www.FiveStarEquities.com/CYS ]

The housing market has continued to show signs of improvement as U.S. home prices in March edged higher for the second month in a row. On a seasonally adjusted basis the S&P Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.1 percent in March, just shy of economists' forecasts of 0.2 percent. There were price increases in seven of the twenty cities covered.

"While a broad regional variation remains, the fact that some of the areas hardest hit during the housing downturn, such as Florida, Arizona and California, have seen gains in recent months is a positive sign that the gradual improvement in housing conditions is becoming somewhat broader based," Peter Newland, an economist at Barclays, wrote in a note.

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American Capital Agency Corp. is a real estate investment trust ("REIT") that invests in agency pass-through securities and collateralized mortgage obligations for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a U.S. Government agency or a U.S. Government-sponsored entity. The company currently offers investors an annual dividend of $5.00 per share for a yield of 15.39 percent.

CYS Investments, Inc. is a specialty finance company that invests on a leveraged basis in residential mortgage pass-through certificates for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae. The company currently offers investors an annual dividend of $2.00 per share for a yield of 14.6 percent.

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