Which real estate stock pays the highest dividend?

REITs as a group are required to pay out 90% of their taxable income as dividends, so they are always a solid bet for dividend income. Their yield is calculated by dividing their dividend by the stock's price each day. Some will pay very high dividends, easily into the double digits, but you have to consider whether these are really sustainable for the long term. Often, a high dividend yield reflects a lack of conviction in the market. Instead of looking for the highest dividend, look for solid companies that pay sustainable dividends.

How do real estate stocks perform during a recession?

Real estate stocks often don't perform well during a recession, but it really depends on the sector and type of stock. If the company has a solid client base and provides a service or type of real estate that is always in demand, it will fare much better than one that is in a more discretionary market.

Can I invest in real estate stocks with little money?

You absolutely can. Many REITs have shares priced in the double digits, and even if they don't, you can still buy fractional shares through your favorite stock brokerage. REITs are bought just like stocks and are just as easy to dispose of, making them a great place for people to park their money if they want to diversify into real estate.

Are real estate stocks taxed differently?

Generally speaking, stock in real estate companies is treated the same as any other stock. There is one exception: REIT dividends. These are usually treated as nonqualified dividends and taxed as ordinary income.

Are real estate stocks better for income or growth?

It very much depends on the company and the stock. Some real estate stocks can be cyclical (dependent on broader market conditions), such as homebuilders or data centers, and can be fairly volatile at times. But you generally should think of real estate stocks as income stocks -- especially REITs, which are structured to favor income over growth.

Who are the Big Four in real estate?

Generally speaking, the Big Four refers to the four biggest commercial real estate companies: CBRE Group (NYSE:CBRE), Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE:JLL), Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE:CWK), and Colliers International (NASDAQ:CIGI). However, the equivalent in residential real estate would be Compass (NYSE:COMP), Anywhere Advisors (owners of Coldwell Banker and Century 21; being acquired by Compass in the second half of 2026), eXp World Holdings (NASDAQ:EXPI), and HomeServices of America.

Should I focus on large-cap or small-cap real estate stocks?

Any real estate portfolio should match your risk tolerance. Small caps can represent significantly more risk and volatility, but also present more opportunities for growth if you can stomach the ups and downs. Large-cap real estate companies tend to be steadier growers, with very few surprises.

Best Real Estate Stocks for 2026 and How to Invest

The best real estate stocks have the potential to grow over the long term while continuing to offer the security of real property.

By Kristi Waterworth – Updated Apr 16, 2026 at 4:05 PM EST | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Real estate stocks offer a simpler way to invest in the market without property management hassles.
Focus on companies like Mid-America Apartment Communities for stable dividends and value growth.
Choosing the right real estate stock involves understanding specific metrics like debt-to-assets ratio.

Owning a single rental property is great. But what if you could get most of the advantages of real estate investing by simply choosing the best real estate stocks for your portfolio? Real estate stocks are stocks related to the real estate market -- they might be real estate investment trusts (REITs), homebuilders, or real estate companies, but they are all in the industry.

There are many advantages to owning real estate stocks over real property, especially when it comes to eliminating the hassle of hands-on management. But there are a lot of real estate stocks to choose from, too. So, how can you even begin to pick among them?

Top eight real estate stocks in 2026

Here are some real estate stocks to watch for the long term:

Loading paragraph...

Ticker Information Table
Company name	Company ticker	Market capMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.	Dividend yield	Industry
Mid-America Apartment Communities	NYSE:MAA	$15.3 billion	5.78%	Residential REITs
		$1.3 billion	5.89%	Residential REITs
Lennar	NYSE:LEN	$20.5 billion	2.34%	Household Durables
		$1.4 billion	0.00%	Household Durables
Equity Residential	NYSE:EQR	$25.6 billion	4.09%	Residential REITs
American Tower	NYSE:AMT	$78.6 billion	4.14%	Specialized REITs
Prologis	NYSE:PLD	$133.7 billion	2.90%	Industrial REITs
CoStar Group	NASDAQ:CSGP	$11.6 billion	0.00%	Real Estate Management and Development

Data as of Jul 16, 2026. Showing 8 of 8 total entries.

Loading ticker_table...

1. Mid-America Apartment Communities

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA -0.29%) is its commitment to redevelopment and adding value to units it already holds rather than selling off aging ones. During the year ending Dec. 31, 2025, the company renovated 5,995 apartments, increasing the average rental rate per unit by 7.0% from pre-renovation levels.

Loading paragraph...

NYSE: MAA

Mid-America Apartment Communities

Today's Change

(-0.29%) $-0.38

Current Price

$131.77

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$15B

Day's Range

$131.59 - $133.35

52wk Range

$120.30 - $153.93

Volume

1.3M

Avg Vol

Gross Margin

29.95%

Dividend Yield

5.78%

Loading company_card...

Its practices are a solid way to conserve a limited supply of apartments and are low-cost methods for increasing per-unit value without constantly buying and selling real estate -- a costly venture on its own. After all, the more spent, the lower the annual return for REIT investors. Responsible conservatorship is also evident in the company's dividend, which has not fallen since it was first offered in 1994.

2. UMH Properties

UMH Properties (UMH -0.59%) is a REIT that has been in the manufactured home business since 1968 and has been publicly traded since 1985. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2025, it held approximately 11,043 individual manufactured rental homes in 145 communities. It had an occupancy rate of 87.2% across all property types, including rental homes and developed home sites.

Loading paragraph...

NYSE: UMH

UMH Properties

Today's Change

(-0.59%) $-0.09

Current Price

$15.28

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$1.3B

Day's Range

$15.26 - $15.60

52wk Range

$13.93 - $17.23

Volume

490.9K

Avg Vol

678.2K

Gross Margin

29.26%

Dividend Yield

5.89%

Loading company_card...

As of Dec. 31, 2025, UMH held $1.7 billion in assets, with $556 million in mortgage debt. UMH offers affordable site rent and overall rent for single-family housing, which is likely to remain in high demand as the cost of stick-built single-family homes remains out of reach for many.

3. Lennar

Lennar (LEN +1.89%) is one of the largest builders of single-family homes in the U.S. It reported revenues of $6.6 billion for the three months ending Feb. 28, 2026, after delivering almost 17,000 homes during that period, with an average price of $374,000.

Loading paragraph...

NYSE: LEN

Lennar

Today's Change

(1.89%) $1.58

Current Price

$85.29

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$21B

Day's Range

$83.67 - $85.61

52wk Range

$81.18 - $144.24

Volume

Avg Vol

2.7M

Gross Margin

16.36%

Dividend Yield

2.34%

Loading company_card...

Although building homes is its primary focus, Lennar also offers Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) home loans to its homebuyers through its subsidiary Lennar Mortgage. It also offers title insurance and closing services in 18 states.

Due to its willingness to experiment, Lennar has generally carried decent debt-to-asset ratios. In February 2026, it had $33.2 billion in assets versus $11.2 billion in liabilities. Although the numbers have dropped a bit overall, Lennar has reduced liabilities to just 33.7% of its assets, a decrease of 2.00% from Nov. 30, 2025, when Lennar held $34.4 billion in assets and $12.3 billion in liabilities.

4. LGI Homes

LGI Homes (LGIH +0.85%) is a growing mid-sized builder that focuses its efforts and marketing on first-time homebuyers. For the year ending December 2025, the average price of a home produced and sold by LGI was $364,035. That's a significant discount from the median existing-home price of $405,300 in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Loading paragraph...

NASDAQ: LGIH

LGI Homes

Today's Change

(0.85%) $0.50

Current Price

$59.34

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$1.4B

Day's Range

$59.17 - $61.15

52wk Range

$33.55 - $69.50

Volume

245.9K

Avg Vol

412.5K

Gross Margin

20.30%

Loading company_card...

Pricing alone gives LGI a distinct advantage in its market, but that's not the whole story behind the company. LGI finished 2025 with $4.0 billion in assets and $1.83 billion in liabilities. Since 2013, the company has expanded into 36 markets across 21 states, up from its original eight markets in just four states.

Loading paragraph...

5. Equity Residential

Equity Residential (EQR -0.67%) is an apartment REIT that has not only committed to providing quality apartment living to residents in major urban areas but also shown a strong commitment to sustainability. The company recently became the first residential REIT to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World and Dow Jones Sustainability North America indexes.

Loading paragraph...

NYSE: EQR

Equity Residential

Today's Change

(-0.67%) $-0.46

Current Price

$68.26

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$26B

Day's Range

$68.10 - $69.39

52wk Range

$57.57 - $71.50

Volume

2.4M

Avg Vol

Gross Margin

31.07%

Dividend Yield

4.09%

Loading company_card...

Equity Residential posted small gains of about 1.32% in funds from operations (FFO) in 2025, reaching $1.54 billion, up from $1.52 billion in the same period in 2024. It averaged more than 85,000 units at a $3,092-per-month rental rate as of the end of 2025, and the company held $20.7 billion in assets and $9.3 billion in liabilities.

Despite stiff competition in some of the most difficult real estate rental markets in the country, Equity Residential achieved an occupancy rate of 95.6% in 2025, across all stages of lease-up.

6. American Tower Group

American Tower Group (AMT -0.12%) provides communication sites across four continents, totaling almost 150,000 sites, of which 42,000 are in the U.S. and Canada. Major customers include T-Mobile (TMUS +0.17%), AT&T (T +0.70%), Verizon Wireless (VZ +0.86%), and Telefónica (TEFOF +1.11%), making up 59% of revenue in 2025.

Loading paragraph...

NYSE: AMT

American Tower

Today's Change

(-0.12%) $-0.20

Current Price

$168.63

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$79B

Day's Range

$167.78 - $171.30

52wk Range

$160.06 - $234.33

Volume

2.2

Avg Vol

3.2M

Gross Margin

54.86%

Dividend Yield

4.14%

Loading company_card...

American Tower focused on growing its African and Asian-Pacific presence in 2025, adding more than 1,200 sites there, compared to 155 in the U.S. and 745 in Europe. Despite the growth, its liability-to-asset ratio is pretty high, with $63 billion in assets versus $52 billion in liabilities, even with a 2025 sale of its South African fiber assets for approximately $138 million.

7. Prologis

Prologis (PLD +0.71%) has long been a power player in the warehouse REIT space, though it seems to be rebranding itself as a warehouse platform provider. The vast majority of its income still comes from renting industrial space, though with top customers including brands such as Amazon (AMZN +2.97%), Home Depot (HD +1.10%), FedEx (FDX -0.08%), UPS (UPS -0.64%), Walmart (WMT -1.10%), and Pepsi (PEP -0.11%).

Loading paragraph...

NYSE: PLD

Prologis

Today's Change

(0.71%) $1.01

Current Price

$143.50

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$134B

Day's Range

$141.63 - $144.29

52wk Range

$103.41 - $150.18

Volume

141.4K

Avg Vol

3.7M

Gross Margin

44.20%

Dividend Yield

2.90%

Loading company_card...

It currently owns almost 650 million square feet of real estate across the globe and manages another 1.2 billion square feet. The company holds more than $98 billion in assets versus just $40 billion in liabilities, giving it plenty of breathing room in challenging times.

8. CoStar Group

Unlike the other real estate companies included in this list, CoStar Group (CSGP +3.02%) doesn't actually deal in real estate; it sells information on the commercial real estate market. Using advanced data analytics, it's managed to dig a deep moat for itself. It owns familiar brands like Apartments.com and LoopNet.

Loading paragraph...

NASDAQ: CSGP

CoStar Group

Today's Change

(2.93%) $0.81

Current Price

$28.49

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$12B

Day's Range

$27.96 - $29.25

52wk Range

$26.68 - $97.43

Volume

409

Avg Vol

7.5M

Gross Margin

74.61%

Loading company_card...

Net income dropped significantly in 2025, from $139 million in 2024 to just $7 million in 2025. This was due to the slowing real estate market and the rising cost of almost everything. This is despite massive revenue growth from $2.74 billion in 2024 to $3.25 billion in 2025.

Despite these hurdles, at the end of 2025, CoStar had increased its assets to $10.5 billion from $9.3 billion at the end of fiscal year 2024. Liabilities climbed from about $1.7 billion for fiscal year 2024 to $2.2 billion in 2025.

How to invest in real estate stocks

Open your brokerage app: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments.
Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.

Pros and cons of investing in real estate stocks

Pros

You don't have to manage or operate real estate businesses yourself.
You can generate passive income.
There's no real input besides checking stock and company stats from time to time.
Some will pay consistent dividends.

Loading paragraph...

Cons

You don't actually own the real estate you're investing in.
Instead of real estate appreciation, you're relying on dividend income.
You have little to no say in how the company or properties are managed.
You are exposed to the cyclical nature of real estate businesses.

Criteria to choose real estate stocks

It's important to carefully choose your real estate stocks, since there are so many available and not all can be winners. Different types of real estate stocks will have different metrics to examine. However, it's important to first understand their business so you can really think about the criteria that matter most to you.

For example, with a REIT, it's important to consider how much debt the company has relative to its assets and income. REITs will have debt, especially during a building phase. But a debt-to-asset ratio topping 40% is where things may get dicey.

If the market were to dry up, they would still need to pay their bills. You can gauge their income by examining funds from operations -- in fact, REITs are often evaluated by FFO per share.

Other real estate companies, such as homebuilders, may have significant inventory that you should carefully examine. If a homebuilder has more homes than they can sell, this could be a sign that deep discounting is coming, and losses may follow.

Real estate companies largely operate on commissions, so it's important to know the number of agents in the company, their income streams, and the reliability of their income streams.

For example, if a real estate company primarily works with residential clients, the number of new listings it can produce and close consistently will figure into its overall performance; one that simply does property management needs only steady, long-term clients.

Tips for investing in real estate stocks

Investing in real estate stocks is much like investing in anything else. You must choose companies that you believe in, those that align with your personal ethics and values and that you'd be proud to say you're an owner in. However, there are so many diverse kinds of real estate stocks that it's difficult to give blanket advice for all of them at once. Here are a few tips for each major type of real estate player:

REITs: REITs are the major players in the real estate space, for good reason. Check the dividend yield to ensure it's sustainable and consistent over time, ensure the REIT's debt isn't too high compared to direct competitors, and look at how much money it is actually making from funds from operations.

Loading paragraph...

FAQ

Best real estate stocks FAQ

Loading faq...

About the Author

Kristi Waterworth has been a contributing real estate and financial expert at The Motley Fool, covering real estate, investing, and personal finance topics, since 2020. Kristi has been interviewed by various TV media outlets and podcasts for her real estate investing expertise – from residential real estate to digital real estate and everything in between. Kristi’s journalist career spans over 25 years, and she has written about real estate investing, homeownership, and home construction specifically for the last decade. She was also previously a licensed Realtor and general building contractor before the Great Recession and housing market collapse. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American history from Columbia College in Missouri.

TMFMaldivesBlue

@MaldivesBlues

Kristi Waterworth has positions in LGI Homes, Lennar, Mid-America Apartment Communities, and UMH Properties. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CoStar Group, LGI Homes, Lennar, and Mid-America Apartment Communities. The Motley Fool recommends UMH Properties. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Best Real Estate Stocks for 2026 and How to Invest

The best real estate stocks have the potential to grow over the long term while continuing to offer the security of real property.

Key Points

Top eight real estate stocks in 2026

1. Mid-America Apartment Communities

Key Data Points

2. UMH Properties

Key Data Points

3. Lennar

Key Data Points

4. LGI Homes

Key Data Points

5. Equity Residential

Key Data Points

6. American Tower Group

Key Data Points

7. Prologis

Key Data Points

8. CoStar Group

Key Data Points

How to invest in real estate stocks

Pros and cons of investing in real estate stocks

Pros

Cons

Criteria to choose real estate stocks

Tips for investing in real estate stocks

Related investing topics

9 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Being Used in Real Estate

6 Things to Know About Investing in Commercial Real Estate

Study: How Diverse is the Real Estate Investing Community?

How to Calculate Cost Basis for Inherited Real Estate

FAQ

Best real estate stocks FAQ

Which real estate stock pays the highest dividend?

Which real estate stock pays the highest dividend?

How do real estate stocks perform during a recession?

How do real estate stocks perform during a recession?

Can I invest in real estate stocks with little money?

Can I invest in real estate stocks with little money?

Are real estate stocks taxed differently?

Are real estate stocks taxed differently?

Are real estate stocks better for income or growth?

Are real estate stocks better for income or growth?

Who are the Big Four in real estate?

Who are the Big Four in real estate?

Should I focus on large-cap or small-cap real estate stocks?

Should I focus on large-cap or small-cap real estate stocks?

About the Author

Read Next

Stocks Mentioned

Motley Fool Stock Advisor’s Latest Pick

Premium Investing Services

Top eight real estate stocks in 2026

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

How to invest in real estate stocks

Pros and cons of investing in real estate stocks

Pros

9 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Being Used in Real Estate

6 Things to Know About Investing in Commercial Real Estate

Study: How Diverse is the Real Estate Investing Community?

How to Calculate Cost Basis for Inherited Real Estate

Best real estate stocks FAQ

Which real estate stock pays the highest dividend?

Which real estate stock pays the highest dividend?

How do real estate stocks perform during a recession?

How do real estate stocks perform during a recession?

Can I invest in real estate stocks with little money?

Can I invest in real estate stocks with little money?

Are real estate stocks taxed differently?

Are real estate stocks taxed differently?

Are real estate stocks better for income or growth?

Are real estate stocks better for income or growth?

Who are the Big Four in real estate?