David Auerbach - Hoya Capital - HOMZ & RIET
Sun Feb 08 2026
David Auerbach, CIO of Hoya Capital, spent over a decade trading REITs at Green Street Advisors in Dallas before getting a front-row seat to the ETF industry's explosive growth at Esposito Securities. Now he runs two REIT-focused ETFs — HOMZ and RIET — managing over $135 million. In this episode, David breaks down the two biggest misconceptions advisors have about REITs: that they're all high yield and that they're all interest rate sensitive. He makes the case that most passive REIT ETFs are far more concentrated than people realize, with just a handful of large-cap names yielding 2–3% dominating the top holdings.
David explains how RIET takes the opposite approach — overweighting small caps, mid caps, mortgage REITs, and REIT preferred stocks to deliver a 10%+ annualized monthly dividend across roughly 100 holdings with no single position above 1.5%. We also dig into the housing supply shortage driving the HOMZ thesis, why 4% on the 10-year Treasury is the magic number for REIT investors, and the current M&A wave that's seen 17 REITs merge or pursue strategic alternatives in just the past four months. David shares why private equity is scooping up REIT platforms trading below net asset value, how advisors should think about using HOMZ and RIET as complements to traditional exposure like VNQ, and why boring is exactly what you want from this corner of your portfolio.
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David Auerbach, CIO of Hoya Capital, spent over a decade trading REITs at Green Street Advisors in Dallas before getting a front-row seat to the ETF industry's explosive growth at Esposito Securities. Now he runs two REIT-focused ETFs — HOMZ and RIET — managing over $135 million. In this episode, David breaks down the two biggest misconceptions advisors have about REITs: that they're all high yield and that they're all interest rate sensitive. He makes the case that most passive REIT ETFs are far more concentrated than people realize, with just a handful of large-cap names yielding 2–3% dominating the top holdings. David explains how RIET takes the opposite approach — overweighting small caps, mid caps, mortgage REITs, and REIT preferred stocks to deliver a 10%+ annualized monthly dividend across roughly 100 holdings with no single position above 1.5%. We also dig into the housing supply shortage driving the HOMZ thesis, why 4% on the 10-year Treasury is the magic number for REIT investors, and the current M&A wave that's seen 17 REITs merge or pursue strategic alternatives in just the past four months. David shares why private equity is scooping up REIT platforms trading below net asset value, how advisors should think about using HOMZ and RIET as complements to traditional exposure like VNQ, and why boring is exactly what you want from this corner of your portfolio.