In the quest for yield, more investors are turning to real-estate investment trusts, or REITs -- diversified real-estate securities that trade like stocks. What's inciting interest is the 13.25 percent return over the past year on the Dow Jones U.S. Select REIT Total Return Index, an industry benchmark. That compares with the 5.2 percent return on the S&P 500 index. Expectations for the future have also helped REITs. According to Bloomberg's survey of economists and strategists, U.S. GDP growth should exceed 2 percent from 2012 to 2014 and the unemployment rate will taper toward 7 percent in 2014.