U.S. real estate-focused exchange-traded funds registered more than $1.24 billion of net inflows in September, marking the fourth consecutive month of positive fund flows into the sector and bringing the total net inflows year-to-date to more than $5.11 billion.
Vanguard Group Inc.'s Vanguard Real Estate ETF — the largest U.S. real estate ETF by assets under management — logged the most inflows during the month, at $598.6 million, followed by BlackRock Inc.'s iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF with $358.8 million of net inflows.
SSGA Funds Management Inc.'s Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund was among the few real estate ETFs with net outflows for the month, at $11.3 million.
Nearly all U.S. real estate-focused ETFs outperformed the S&P 500's 1.9% return during the recent month.
Among the group, Invesco Capital Management LLC's Invesco KBW Premium Yield Equity REIT ETF generated the highest total return for its shareholders during September, at 10.6%. The dividend yield-weighted fund focuses mainly on small-cap real estate investment trusts. It also underweights residential REITs in favor of commercial REITs.
BlackRock's iShares Residential Real Estate ETF and Pacer Financial Inc.'s Pacer Benchmark Data & Infrastructure Real Estate SCTR ETF were the sole members of the group to underperform the S&P 500, logging returns of 1.5% and 0.6%, respectively.

