The Motley Fool’s comparison favors Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) for breadth and yield: it has 139 holdings and a 3.7% trailing yield, versus State Street’s XLRE, with 30 stocks and 3.3%. XLRE charges 0.08% versus VNQ’s 0.13%; five-year returns were similar.
Over five years, the comparison’s total-return figures show $1,000 growing to $1,073 in XLRE and $1,059 in VNQ; maximum drawdowns were 34.1% and 34.5%, respectively. Both funds had a beta of 0.98. VNQ had $70.8 billion in assets, compared with $8.3 billion for XLRE.
VNQ tracks the MSCI U.S. Investable Market Real Estate 25/50 Index and includes small- and mid-cap holdings. XLRE follows the Real Estate Select Sector Index, covering real estate management, development and equity REITs in the S&P 500 while excluding mortgage REITs. Both funds count Welltower, Prologis and Equinix among their largest positions.
