Luckily, someone has gone to the trouble of compiling just such a list of elite companies that are in the S&P 500 and have strong enough earnings to raise their dividends annually for at least 25 consecutive years. For instance, income investors might want to take a look at the real estate investment trust (REIT) sector to find inflation-beating yields and growth. The West Coast underperformed the rest of the U.S. with respect to job losses during the pandemic as San Francisco and Seattle had extended shutdowns.