U.S. real estate-focused exchange-traded funds amassed $879.6 million of net inflows during July, continuing the trend set the month prior where the group collected more than $1 billion of net inflows. Inflows in July brought the total net inflows year-to-date to $3.65 billion.

Vanguard Group Inc.'s Vanguard Real Estate ETF collected the majority of the capital during the recent month, at $578.6 million. SSGA Funds Management Inc.'s Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund followed, with $289.2 million of net inflows.

On the other hand, BlackRock Inc.'s iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF ended July with $252 million of net outflows, the most among the group, despite having the highest return for the month at 2.7%.

Nearly all U.S.-focused real estate ETFs outperformed the S&P 500 during July. BlackRock's iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF and iShares Residential Real Estate ETF were among the top-performing ETFs of the group, along with Pacer Financial Inc.'s Pacer Benchmark Industrial Real Estate SCTR ETF — an industrial REIT-focused fund with $14.4 million assets under management at July-end.

Pacer Financial's Pacer Benchmark Data & Infrastructure Real Estate SCTR ETF and Invesco Capital Management LLC's Invesco KBW Premium Yield Equity REIT ETF were the bottom-performing ETFs of the group, ending July with returns of 0.5% and 0.9% for the month, respectively.