So far in 2005 the real estate investments have fallen 7.6% on average, well below the compound annual return of 13.8% over the last ten years in such investments. The average dividend yield over the same time period is 5.5% for all publicly traded REITs.
The best performing sector on the month was Self Storage, with a 0.8% gain in March. The worst performing sector in march was Home Financing, which lost 14.7%.
These figures are in sharp contrast to those seen in 2004, when REITs performed tremendously, bringing in average returns of 30.4% (See REITs Produce Stellar Returns in 2004 ).