21 REITs For 2021: What To Buy, Hold And Sell

21 REITs For 2021: What To Buy, Hold And Sell

Empty Urban Street with Skyscraper at Sunrise



getty

Can we income seekers safely get back into REITs (real estate investment trusts) next year?

With the yield on the S&P 500 about to drop to a sad 1.5% (thanks, Tesla



TSLA

(TSLA) addition), renewed REIT-hope sure would be nice! The landlord industry index Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ)



VNQ

pays 3.5%. That's a dividend oasis in this zero-point-nothing world.

Once upon a time, VNQ performed in-line or better than the blue-chip index. It was a pretty good deal, as you could double your dividend and keep up with the Joneses' portfolio with less heartburn.

Then, April 2020 came along, tenants stopped paying rents, and REITs-at-large got crushed.

Does the fork-in-the-road above represent a paradigm shift or relative value? It depends on the tenant.



In April, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Nareit) began collecting information on rents by property sector. They ranged from fine-throughout (Industrial) to still-disastrous (Shopping Centers):



Nareit

Nareit

The “N/A” you see above for August and September next to Industrial, Office