NAREIT indexes turn 30.

The NAREIT Indexes, the REIT and publicly traded real estate industry's longest-running benchmarks, celebrate their 30th anniversary this year. The Index was created in 1972 in the wake of significant REIT Initial Public Offering activity and requests for a reliable benchmark to track real estate stock performance. Since then, they have undergone several enhancements to provide even more comprehensive benchmarking for anyone following the REIT and publicly traded real estate industry.

"NAREIT's Indexes have evolved -- much like the industry itself," said NAREIT President & CEO Steven A. Wechsler. "What began as a single NAREIT Index is today a series of market measures that track real estate stocks domestically and internationally."

Major milestones in the history of the Index have included the breakout of property sectors in 1994, expansion to real-time data in 1999, introduction of an index to track the largest publicly traded REITs and Real Estate Operating Companies in 2000, and launch of the EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate Index last year. Wechsler also noted that unlike other performance measures, the NAREIT Composite Index is all-inclusive.

"All REITs are in it, many fund managers track it, and any investor can learn from it," he said. Going forward, the NAREIT Indexes will continue to evolve to meet the needs of the investment community, according to NAREIT's senior director of industry analysis, Chuck DiRocco.

"Thirty years after their inception, the NAREIT Indexes are more timely and trusted than ever before. Investors and industry observers can be certain our family of indexes will continue to adapt to meet their needs."