U.S. real estate exchange-traded funds saw approximately $400.3 million of net inflows in August, bringing assets under management for real estate ETFs to roughly $53.05 billion as of Aug. 31.

BlackRock Inc.'s iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF registered the largest net inflows of the group for the month of August, at $471.6 million, rebounding from the largest net outflows last month.

Although SSgA Funds Management Inc.'s Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund experienced the largest net outflow this month, the fund posted the highest monthly total return among the group, at 1.0%. The real estate ETF was also ranked in the upper half of the group on a one-year total return basis, at 2.4%.

As of Aug. 31, the S&P 500 recorded the highest one-year total return at 16.2%, followed by Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC's PowerShares KBW Premium Yield Equity REIT Portfolio, which provided a 4.6% return.

For further return analysis, try S&P Global Market Intelligence's Worldwide Real Estate Total Return Analysis. Other templates are also available in the Template Library.