What is the average return on a REIT in 2023?

During the first five months of 2023 the average REIT had a -6.38% return. The REIT sector began the first five months of 2024 with a slightly less bad -5.45% total return. Source: Table by Simon Bowler of 2nd Market Capital, Data compiled from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. See important notes and disclosures at the end of this article

How do REITs perform compared to stock markets?

Measuring average annualized returns for the modern REIT era, starting in the early 1990s, the longer the time period the better REITs perform compared to the broader U.S. stock market. Chart 3 plots the percent of months REITs outperformed U.S. stocks at increasing years of holding length.

How often do REITs outperform US stocks?

Looking at annual returns, REITs outperformed U.S. stocks more than 56% of the time. When REIT returns are measured over 19 years or greater, REITs outperform U.S. stocks every month. In Chart 1, REITs underperformed in a ten-year period for March 2020, but outperformed in every period longer than 16 years.