REITs Lagged In April But Stay Tuned for September And Beyond

NAREIT’s Brad Case

WASHINGTON, DC—April was another soft month for equity REITs, according to the FTSE/NAREIT All REIT Index. The industry association NAREIT reported that the index fell 1.7% during the month, while the S&P 500 Index notched up by 0.4%. As usual, there were outliers and laggards within the individual sectors. Timberland REITs delivered total returns of 3.5% in April, for example, while returns for infrastructure REITs rose 2%. Self-storage REITs, usually a winning category, fell by 10.7% in April.

Year to date, however, REITs have outpaced the broader equity market, Brad Case, NAREIT’s senior vice president of Research & Industry Information, told GlobeSt.com. Through the end of April, the total returns of the FTSE/NAREIT All REIT Index were 4.1%, while the S&P 500 Index has gained 1.7%. March, for example, was a particularly good month for REITs, with the FTSE/NAREIT All REIT Index rising 10% and outperforming the S&P 500 Index’s 6.8% increase that month.