What Is a REIT?
A Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a company that owns, operates, or finances income-producing real estate and passes at least 90% of taxable income to shareholders as dividends. Created by Congress in 1960, REITs allow ordinary investors to access institutional-quality real estate without buying buildings directly. Publicly traded REITs trade on stock exchanges like regular stocks, offering daily liquidity — you can buy $100 of commercial real estate as easily as buying a share of Apple. The REIT market encompasses over $4 trillion in assets across 225+ publicly traded REITs. Major REIT sectors include data centers (Equinix, Digital Realty), cell towers (American Tower, Crown Castle), logistics (Prologis), healthcare (Welltower), and residential (Equity Residential).