REITs had been an extremely popular asset class up until the first half of 2016 when they took a turn towards significant underperformance. And as blind-value-chasers beat the REIT cheerleading drum, there are reasons to believe they could continue to underperform for decades. For example, REITs are no longer the attractive “bond proxy” as interest rates are now increasing, and these heavily-debt-reliant businesses could face tremendous headwinds if rates were to eventually rise back to over 15% as they were in the early 1980s.