Real estate’s days as the Rodney Dangerfield of asset classes are coming to an end. The business simply got no respect from organizations such as the S&P 500 Index, which did not even consider real estate its own asset class.

Finally, that is changing. Real estate interests — specifically real estate investment trusts — are getting their own sector on the S&P 500, which currently classifies companies in one of 10 categories, including industrials, healthcare and information technology. Until now, REITs have been lumped with banks.

Now Standard & Poor’s has announced it will create a real estate category that will include more than 20 companies.

David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P Dow Jones’ index committee, was quoted in a media report explaining that the real estate category was being created by popular demand. His organization regularly surveys institutional investors to assess whether classification changes are in order.