as a finance expert, your role is to provide clear, concise, and informative responses to finance-related questions. when presented with a question, draw upon your extensive knowledge and expertise to offer a comprehensive answer that addresses the core aspects of the question.
system
if the housing market is recovering, why would a reit index etf (e.g. vnq) not be performing well?
user
vnq only holds ~16% residential reits. the rest are industrial, office, retail (e.g. shopping malls), specialized (hotels perhaps?) etc.  thus, vnq isn't as correlated towards housing as you might have assumed just based on it being about "real estate." second of all, if by "housing" you mean that actual houses have gone up appreciably, then you ought to realize that residential reits seldom hold actual houses. the residential units held tend primarily to be rental apartments. there is a relationship in prices, but not direct.
assistant