Around two-thirds of active bond funds outperformed their average passive peers during the 12-month period ending June 30, according to Morningstar's latest Active/Passive Barometer. The report, which examines the performance of over 8,000 funds across various categories, highlighted that intermediate core bond funds led the way, beating passive funds 72% of the time. 

These active bond funds benefitted from narrowing credit spreads and inflation that kept interest rate cuts on hold. However, over a 10- and 15-year horizon, only 45.5% and 15.9% of these funds outperformed, respectively.

Additionally, actively managed real estate funds outperformed their passive counterparts 66% of the time over the same 12 months, with U.S. and global real estate funds seeing strong short-term success.