With many equity markets plunging around the globe, investors are flocking towards safe-haven investments. This flight to quality has left many investors piling into US Treasury bonds and the US dollar in general. This has helped to sink commodity prices and send T-Bill yields lower decreasing the desirability of each substantially as asset classes to stash cash in. This leaves one type of investment that most investors would not consider given recent market events; real estate.

Despite their position at the epicenter of the recent mortgage meltdown, many US real estate ETFs have rebounded nicely in 2010. In fact, of the 13 ETFs in the domestic real estate ETF category only 1 has posted a loss for the year. This is in sharp contrast to the global real estate ETF category, which has seen all ten of its funds post a loss on the year.