Top ETFs Bet on Real Estate in August

TheStreet.com Ratings provides exclusive stock, ETF and mutual fund ratings and commentary based on award-winning, proprietary tools. Its "safety first" approach to investing aims to reduce risk while seeking solid outperformance on a total return basis.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The best-performing exchange traded funds in August targeted the recovering real estate market and banks that have become property owners through foreclosure.

Topping the list are two triple-leveraged funds. The Direxion Daily Real Estate Bull 3x Shares(DRN Quote) jumped 41% in its first full calendar month of trading. The more established Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares(FAS Quote) gained 38%.

The four largest holders of repossessed real estate as of June 30 were JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote) with $4.9 billion in property, Wells Fargo(WFC Quote) with $2.5 billion, Bank of America(BAC Quote) with $1.8 billion, and Citigroup(C Quote) with $1.7 billion. These ETFs made leveraged bets on these banks and other financial stocks.

The best-performing, non-leveraged fund in August was the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Sugar Subindex Total Return ETN(SGG Quote), which returned a sweet 31% in one month. This exchange traded note tracks an index of futures contracts tied to sugar prices called World Sugar No. 11, which trades on the New York Board of Trade's ICE Futures U.S. Softs exchange. One contract for 112,000 pounds of raw cane sugar is now worth $27,316.80, up 31% in a month and a huge jump from the $13,227 it was worth at year-end.

Best Performing Exchange-Traded Funds in August Fund (Ticker) Rating Objective Total Return 1 Month Direxion Daily Real Estate Bull 3x Shares (DRN) U Real Estate 41.0% Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) U Financial Service 37.5% iPath Dow Jones-UBS Sugar Subindex Total Return ETN (SGG) B- Commodity 30.8% Rydex 2X S&P Select Sector Financial ETF (RFL) E Financial Service 26.6% ProShares Ultra Real Estate (URE) E- Real Estate 26.2% ProShares Ultra Financials (UYG) E Financial Service 24.6% iShares FTSE NAREIT Industrial/Office Capped Index Fund (FIO) E+ Real Estate 19.4% SPDR KBW Bank ETF (KBE) E+ Financial Service 17.1% iShares FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe Index Fund (IFEU) D Real Estate 16.8% RevenueShares Financials Sector Fund (RWW) U Financial Service 16.5% Source: TheStreet.com Ratings & Bloomberg

-- Reported by Kevin Baker in Jupiter, Fla.

Follow TheStreet.com on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.