REIT’s big year comes to a halt in September

After an impressive year that saw the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs return more in August (3.27 percent) than in all of 2013 (2.86 percent) and a total return of 21.17 percent year-to-date as of Aug. 31, REITs’ momentum came to a grinding halt in September as the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs index lost 5.61 percent over the month, dropping its year-to-date returns to 13.36 percent.

The drop in the REIT market was almost certainly a symptom of the struggles of the broader stock market, as the S&P 500 Index also had a rough September, losing 1.55 percent and bringing its gains for the third quarter down to 0.6 percent.

Among the four major property types, residential REITs had the roughest month, losing 7.42 percent, after putting together the strongest 2014 performance among the four maj