RWR vs XLRE

RWRAState Street SPDR Dow Jones REIT ETF

XLREAState Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF

In short

RWR A 2001-vintage REIT specialist: roughly 100 US real estate investment trusts tracked through the Dow Jones U.S. Select REIT Capped Index, priced under the typical broad real estate fund.

XLRE The S&P 500's landlords in one ticker: about 30 large-cap real estate companies, mortgage REITs excluded, for 0.08% a year. It launched in 2015, before real estate was even its own market sector.

Stated mandate

RWR The fund seeks to track, before expenses, the total return performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select REIT Capped Index.

XLRE The fund seeks to provide investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Real Estate Select Sector Index, representing the real estate sector of the S&P 500 Index.

Why people hold it

• RWR Trading since 2001, giving it a record that spans multiple property and rate cycles, not just the last one.
• 0.25% expense ratio, below the median for US broad real estate ETFs.
• Sticks tightly to the Dow Jones U.S. Select REIT Capped Index: one of the cleanest index deliveries in its peer group.ssga.com
• About 100 REITs, paying out quarterly, in a plain 1940 Act fund with no leverage or derivative wrapper.

• XLRE 0.08% a year sits at the floor of the real estate peer group, where the median fund charges several times more.
• Clean mandate: S&P 500 real estate management, development and equity REITs, with mortgage REITs left out, so no mortgage paper rides along in a property fund.ssga.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the most actively traded names in its category, which usually shows up as tight spreads when you click buy.
• Running since 2015, arriving before S&P and MSCI split real estate out as its own sector in 2016. Pays quarterly, and ranks among the stronger builds in a crowded lineup.reit.com

Worth knowing

• RWR Several broad real estate rivals undercut it on fee: SCHH at 0.07%, USRT at 0.08%, VNQ at 0.13%.
• One sector, one country: US real estate only, so property values and borrowing costs drive the ride.
• Volume is moderate rather than heavyweight next to the category's biggest names.

• XLRE About 30 holdings, so the largest positions carry real weight and one company's stumble is felt across the fund.
• The S&P 500 sets the universe, so REITs that never reach large-cap index status stay outside the portfolio.ssga.comsec.gov
• This is one slice of the market, moving with the property cycle rather than blending into a broad index.

Full RWR profile⁠

Full XLRE profile⁠