NRO vs SPY: Correlation
Neuberger Real Estate Securities Income Fund Inc. (NRO) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) show a moderate relationship: their 3-year correlation of weekly returns is 0.54.
Data as of 2026-08-27 · refreshed every trading day · weekly returns · methodology
How correlated are NRO and SPY?
Over the past 3 years, NRO and SPY moved with a correlation of 0.54, which is moderate. Little has changed lately, as the 1-year reading of 0.53 lands near the 3-year figure. Over 5 years the correlation is 0.65, and the annualized covariance of weekly returns is 146.9 %².
By 3-year correlation, SPY places #12 of the 17 assets tracked against NRO. Their recent paths diverged sharply: over the last 12 months SPY outperformed by 18.1 percentage points (+2.5% for NRO against +20.6% for SPY).
How is this computed?
Pearson correlation on weekly returns: ρ(A,B) = cov(rA, rB) / (σA · σB), over windows of 52, 156 and 260 weeks. Covariance is annualized (×52) and expressed in %². Full definitions on the methodology page.
NRO vs SPY: side by side
| NRO (Neuberger Real Estate Securities Income Fund Inc.) | SPY (SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1-year return | +2.5% | +20.6% |
| 5-year return | +2.7% | +82.4% |
| Volatility (ann.) | 18.9% | 14.5% |
| Beta vs S&P 500 | 0.70 | 1.00 |
| Max drawdown (3Y) | -24.8% | -18.8% |
| Market cap | $0.2B | – |
| P/E (trailing) | 8.2 | – |
| Dividend yield | 0.00% | 1.01% |
| Expense ratio | – | 0.09% |
| Assets under management | – | $795.3B |
| Sector / category | US Listed | ETF · US Large Cap |
SPY is a Large Blend fund from State Street Investment Management: $795.3B under management, 504 holdings, a 0.09% expense ratio, a 1.01% trailing dividend yield.
Year-by-year returns
| Year | NRO | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | -35.1% | -18.2% |
| 2023 | +15.1% | +26.2% |
| 2024 | +23.8% | +24.9% |
| 2025 | +0.8% | +17.7% |
| 2026 | +5.0% | +13.7% |
Calendar-year price returns; the current year is year-to-date as of the data date above.
Are NRO and SPY good diversifiers for each other?
Only partially. A correlation of 0.54 means NRO and SPY share most of their swings. Pairing them dampens volatility somewhat, but it will not protect against a common drawdown.
FAQ
What is the correlation between NRO and SPY?
As of 2026-08-27, the correlation of weekly returns between NRO and SPY is 0.54 over 3 years, 0.53 over 1 year and 0.65 over 5 years.
Is SPY a good diversifier for NRO?
Only partially. A correlation of 0.54 means NRO and SPY share most of their swings. Pairing them dampens volatility somewhat, but it will not protect against a common drawdown.
What does a correlation of 0.54 mean?
On the −1 to +1 scale, 0.54 describes how much the two returns move together: +1 is lockstep, 0 is independence, negative values mean opposite directions. It says nothing about which performed better.
Use this data
$ curl https://www.pairbook.io/api/v1/pairs/nro-vs-spy.json
Embed this badge (it refreshes with the data), with attribution:
[](https://www.pairbook.io/pair/nro-vs-spy/)
Free with attribution; caching and terms are described in the API documentation.
Related comparisons
Hubs: NRO correlations · SPY correlations