Real estate is getting thumped, which means real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a bargain once again. Finally! REIT yields are back to where they ought to be—(land)lording over the vanilla S&P 500: We contrarians, of course, can do even better than the popular Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) . While 3.5% isn’t bad, it pales in comparison to the 12.7% “headline yield” we’re about to discuss. Why are REITs cheap again? Simple: The Fed. As I mentioned months ago , higher interest rates mean not only higher costs of capital for REITs (and all other companies, for that matter), but also more competition for income as bond yields become increasingly competitive.… Read more