The broader stock market has struggled lately. U.S. stocks finished sharply lower on March 27 as worries about the Iran war pushed oil prices and bond yields higher, with the S&P 500 ($SPX) down 1.7%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI) off by 1.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite ($NASX) lower by 2.1% in a single session.
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have been caught in that pressure, too. The Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) — a bellwether fund with more than $34 billion in assets under management — has lost almost 4% over the last five years, with a sizable portion of that drop in just the past month. Even so, JPMorgan Research still expects 6% growth in funds from operations (FFO) for the REIT sector in 2026, a measure that strips out non-cash items to better gauge how well a trust can keep paying its dividend. That outlook is drawing fresh interest back into the group.
