New research indicates that REITs outperformed private real estate by nearly 2.7 percentage points per year on average and provided better risk-adjusted returns over 21 years. Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing. As technology proliferates, logistics operations will expand into new places, blurring the line between retail and industrial real estate.