50-year-old real-estate investment trusts capture attention

The real-estate investment trust is enjoying newfound popularity despite - or perhaps because of - its close ties to the foundering commercial real-estate market. Real-estate investment trusts, or REITs, allow investors to get a stake in properties such as office buildings, strip malls or hotels but avoid any management responsibilities for them. The trusts are 50 years old; REITs first received regulatory approval in September 1960. Investor interest in REITs has accelerated rapidly during the past decade, with the U.S. market's total assets more than doubling to about $200 billion from $90 billion, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, based in Washington, D.C. Investment markets in Europe and Asia began trading in both foreign and domestic REITs in the same 10-year period.

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