Real estate stocks outperform general market

For the second straight year, real-estate stocks will end 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% as of Tuesday. And while that figure is down slightly from last year’s gains of 28.5%, it more than doubled the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was up 11% on the year as of Monday. Similarly, the S&P 500 was up 12.86% in 2010.

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