REIT Performance
REITs have achieved gains in all four months of 2019, with a stellar 18.67% return year to date. REITs (+0.51%) underperformed the broader market in April, falling short of the NASDAQ (+4.74%), S&P 500 (3.93%) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (+2.56%). The market cap-weighted Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) did not perform as well as the average REIT in April (-0.16% vs. +0.51%) and also lags year to date (+17.18% vs. +18.67%). This ETF’s weaker performance is driven by the fact that large-cap REITs have somewhat underperformed over the first four