U.S. REITs finished out the third quarter with a bruising 12.2 percent decline in September, according to the FTSE Nareit Equity REITs Index. Along with a 6.0 percent decline in August, REITs’ third quarter total return was firmly in negative territory, with a loss of 9.9 percent over the past three months.
Year-to-date, REITs have declined 28.1 percent. That puts the losses in the first three quarters of the year behind the S&P 500 Index, which has fallen 23.9 percent year-to-date, but ahead of the Nasdaq Composite Index, which has fallen 32.0 percent.
Every property sector fell in September, and every sector is in the red year-to-date. The residential sectors had the best performance in September, though that meant a loss of 7.0 percent for single-family rental REITs and a decline of 7.5 percent for apartment REITs. The biggest declines in the past month were recorded by diversified REITs,