There are many ways to invest in real estate.  There are many ways to invest in the health care sector.  LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC) is a publicly traded company that offers a way to do both, along with booking a healthy dividend yield.

LTC Properties is a real estate investment trust that invests in senior housing and long term care facilities.

Demographics is certainly on the side of LTC Properties.  The population is the United States is getting older.  That obviously increases the demand for senior citizen goods and services of all kinds.  Investing in the housing sector is certainly one way to profit.

Those who have done that with LTC Properties have registered a double digit return for 2014 (chart below).

For the year,LTC Properties up nearly 12 percent.  By contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) is up less than half that amount for the year.  The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) has risen by just under 9.7 percent for 2014.

It is the dividend yield that sets LTC Properties off from others, though.

The average dividend yield for a member of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is just under 2 percent.  LTC Properties has a dividend yield of nearly 5.4 percent.  That is much higher than the high dividend yield for a Dow Jones Industrial Average stock, too.

As a real estate investment trust, LTC Properties is required by law to pay out most of its income in the form of a dividend.

LTC Properties is down for the last week, month, and quarter of market action.  But it is a very profitable company with a profit margin more than three times the average for a company on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.  LTC Properties is now trading around $38 a share.  The mean analyst target price over the next year of market action is $44.33.  Combined with the robust divided yield, that could make for a very health total return.