Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have been around since President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation aimed at opening the lucrative world of commercial real estate investing to the average American.
Since then, REITs have been combining the risks and benefits of owning property with the liquidity and transparency of owning shares of stock. REITs own pools of real estate or real estate-backed loans and use their income to meet the IRS mandate of distributing at least 90% of their taxable income to shareholders in the form of dividends.
It's that flow of dividend income that helps make them so attractive to hundreds of millions of investors, often as much for long-term investments as share price growth.
There are different kinds of REITs. This list will begin with the major types and then move on to some specific stocks available to investors in the public exchanges.
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