5 Investment Ideas to Play the Housing Boom

By Rick Munarriz – Apr 18, 2013 at 8:58PM

NASDAQ: NFLX

Netflix

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$264B

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(-0.51%) -$3.13

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$610.56

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Real estate developers are hot, but let's go for some less obvious investment ideas.

Investment ideas in the real estate market recovery are easy enough to find. Most homebuilders have treated investors to ridiculous returns over the past two years as the housing market bottomed out and bounced back.

However, let's look beyond the low-lying fruit of residential developers. There are, naturally, plenty of other companies that are benefiting from the strong bounce in real estate prices.

In this video, Rick takes a look at five investment ideas that he sees as winners cashing in on the recovery, without having to lay down a foundation, or worry about drywall.

Rick suggests Zillow (ZG -1.84%) and Trulia (NYSE: TRLA) as smart plays among real estate websites. He also like Lumber Liquidators (LL -3.80%) and Trex (TREX 0.20%) as home improvement plays, and Netflix (NFLX -0.51%) as a stealth "stay at home" play for new property buyers.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool recommends Lumber Liquidators, Netflix, Trex, and Zillow. The Motley Fool owns shares of Lumber Liquidators, Netflix, Trex, and Zillow. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.