Real estate stocks outperform general market

For the second straight year, real estate stocks ended the year with gains twice as high as the general stock market, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to Dow Jones, REITs were up 27 percent as of Dec. 28. And while that figure is down slightly from last year’s gains of 28.5 percent, it more than doubled the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was up 11 percent on the year as of Monday. Similarly, the S&P 500 was up 12.86 percent in 2010.

The surge was mainly triggered by investors looking for higher yields, since REIT dividend yields, at roughly 4 percent, were higher than the 3.35 percent on Treasury bonds. However, during the fourth quarter, REITs mainly kept pace with the general stock market as continued high unemployment worried investors.