This article reads like a press release:

“Real estate goes up in spurts, like over the last five years, when the average annual increase was almost 21 percent, according to data from the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and FTSE, a British index publishing company. And so far this year, real estate mutual funds have returned 16.57 percent to investors, reports Morningstar, putting them at the top of the fund research firm’s list. But even when real estate stocks and funds aren’t racing up in price, they tend to pay you in solid dividends that are really rent payments collected by the companies you invested in. Even after the last rip-roaring five years, REITs are paying about 4 percent in dividends, according to their trade association.”

Via Washington Post/Reuters