Nareit Staff

Income investors continued to find REITs attractive in the first quarter of 2017. 

Home Financing REITs delivered a 12.19 percent gain to outpace the overall FTSE NAREIT Mortgage REITs Index in the first quarter, while Commercial Financing REITs gained 6.47 percent.

Mortgage REIT returns outperformed Equity REITs and the broader equity market in the first quarter of 2017.

Leaders of the REIT and publicly traded real estate industry met with key policymakers around Washington on March 1.

The Single Family Homes, Specialty and Timber REIT property segments led the Equity REIT market with double-digit total returns in the first two months of 2017.

REITs rebounded in February after a slow start to the year, outpacing the S&P 500 in the month.  The FTSE NAREIT All REITs Index, the broadest index of the U.S. REIT market including both Equity and Mortgage REITs, gained 4.16 percent on a total return basis in February.

In January, the FTSE NAREIT All REITs Index, the broadest index of the U.S. REIT market, delivered a 0.24 percent total return, the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index delivered a 0.17 percent total return and the FTSE NAREIT Mortgage REITs Index returned 1.60 percent compared to the S&P 500’s 1.90 percent.

Consultation scheduled to close on Feb. 20.

On September 30, 2016, the debt-to-total market capitalization of the Equity REIT market (debt divided by the sum of debt and equity) was 31.9 percent, the lowest since the end of 1997.

Ten Equity REIT market segments – more than half of the property segments in the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index – had double-digit total returns in 2016.