I rarely hear discussion of them on here or on other forums, and I am wondering why.
I have a couple in my portfolio, VGSIX for example, and even in a bad year, it still has a 3-4% dividend and a similar expense ratio to a stock index fund. I also have FRESX with fidelity, which isn't as good as the VGSIX on paper, but I figured I would diversify them a bit. These funds killed it last year.
Also, they seem more volatile, but also someone predictable over all. They usually go up in summer from what I have observed, and then drop back down in the winter. I assumed that this was because the warm months are more popular months for real estate. Maybe someone more knowledgeable than myself can comment on that.
Thanks