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Muddling Through
I’m not a meteorologist, and I don’t know if the storm in which we find ourselves is “perfect” or otherwise. However, it’s clear that tumbling home prices, high energy costs, soft consumer spending, falling employment and—scariest of all—a jolting credit crunch have combined to create some very heavy weather for investors.
[July/August 2008]
Ready, Aim, Fire!
As the U.S. housing market continues to weaken, predictions that a similar fate awaits commercial real estate are growing more frequent and increasingly bold.
[May/June 2008]
Decisions, Decisions
Until fairly recently, the REIT industry has been the province of “small”—although not necessarily “vertically challenged”—investors.
[March/April 2008]
Target Date Funds: A New Opportunity for Investors and Real Estate
This year marks an important milestone for the U.S. retirement system. In 2007, the oldest baby boomers, the roughly 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, first became eligible to collect Social Security and other retirement benefits.
[January/February 2008]
Lessons from the "Black Swan"
Most REITs fall under the category of equity REITs because they own, manage, acquire and develop commercial real estate. However, a significant number of them are mortgage REITs, which provide financing for real estate owners.
[November/December 2007]
“It’s the Debt Market, Stupid”
The past few years have seen conditions in the real estate capital markets that are almost the polar opposite of those that prevailed during the early 1990s, when REIT market capitalization first took off.
[September/October 2007]
The REIT Payout Puzzle
Commercial real estate owners expect regular and substantial distributions from available real estate cash flows, along with very modest capital appreciation from increasing property values.
[July/August 2007]
REIT Era 2.0
While growing investor interest in real estate is fueling a proliferation of REITs and REIT-like vehicles around the world, the REIT landscape in the United States is being redrawn.
[May/June 2007]
Real Estate or Equity? Revisiting an Old Conundrum
For many years, REIT investors have been suffering from an identity crisis. Are REITs “real estate” or are they "equities?"
[March/April 2007]
Reading the Tea Leaves for 2007
Forecasting is especially difficult in the investment world.
[January/February 2006]
REITs' Private Side
More than 20 years ago, I bet my career on what I continue to believe to be a self-evident truth: publicly traded REITs provide the highest and best ownership vehicle for investment-grade real estate.
[November/December 2006]
Investing Abroad: Watch Out for Dragons
Several powerful trends, advancing simultaneously, have caused U.S. investors to become more interested than ever in both domestic and foreign commercial real estate.
[September/October 2006]
REIT Governance: Improved, With More to Do
With REITs gaining in numbers, scope and size around the world, governance is fast becoming a key topic for investors—debt and equity alike.
[July/August 2006]
Closing the GAAP
If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Fair enough.
[May/June 2006]
The Changing Face of Real Estate as an Asset Class
Institutional investors have long recognized the benefits of owning an interest in real estate assets.
[March/April 2006]
Six Predictions for '06
As Warren Buffett has wisely noted, “Forecasts usually tell us more of the forecaster than of the future.”
[January/february 2006]
Thoughts on the Flow of Information
Information flow is like a river, which sometimes runs straight and clear, but other times may shift course and become muddied.
[November/December 2005]
Memories and Lessons
Having invested in REITs almost since "the creation," I would like to share a few memories with you—both good and otherwise—as well as the lessons learned from them.
[September/October 2005]
Compliance Rules
The benefits of complying with the financial reporting and disclosure requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley are the same for REITs as for any other company: meet them, and stay out of jail. It’s the kind of win-win strategy that only a bureaucrat could love.
[July/August 2005]
Strange Bedfellows
Politics may make strange bedfellows, but the equities markets may do so as well.
[May/June 2005]
Could Weak Dollar Strengthen U.S. REITs?
Cheap money has been a boon to real estate buyers across the board if not to the distinction among various grades of investment property.
[March/April 2005]
The Trend Is Your Friend
We real estate investors are cycle-sensitive veterans and know that no trend is forever.
[January/February 2005]
The Valuation Paradox
No one argues that REITs represent the sort of bargain today that they did in mid-December 1999 when a Wall Street Journal article highlighting a stock tip (First Industrial Realty Trust) found in a wallet auctioned for charity by Warren Buffett marked the beginning of what is perhaps the longest (and strongest) REIT bull market on record.
[November/December 2004]
A Path to Making Net Income Relevant
Arriving at a consensus for the most useful performance measurement for REITs and other real estate companies is darn near impossible.
[September/October 2004]
To Buy or Not to Buy...
To buy or not to buy—that, with apologies to Shakespeare, is the question.
[July/August 2004]
A corporate governance report card
Corporate governance has been a hot topic at Green Street and with our institutional investor customer base for some time.
[May/June 2004]
REIT Dividends: Telling It Like It Really Is
Ater roughly 10 straight years of posting impressive dividend growth—as payout ratios declined to historic lows—REIT dividends have hit a bump in the road.
[March/April 2004]
Sticking Around
REIT stock performance over the past four years has been nothing short of spectacular. But we curmudgeonly REIT investors are not inclined to boast, swagger or lay high-fives upon one another; rather, we are more sober and reflective.
[January/February 2004]
Down the Stretch They Come
Thoroughbred races usually go one of two ways: an early front-runner sets a blistering pace out of the gate and leaves the field in the dust, or a strong closer lingers in the middle of the pack until he makes his move at the end of the race.
[November/December 2003]
Aging Population Leads to Wrinkle in EU’s Outlook
Any real estate company looking to do business in Europe should take note, the newborn European Union is growing up—fast.
[September/October 2003]
Strategy Session
What happens when leading market strategists get together to share their views on the market, the economy and world affairs? Real Estate Portfolio was at the Board of Governors luncheon at the 2003 NAREIT Institutional Investor Forum where three top U.S. market strategists discussed these, and other, topics of interest.
[July/August 2003]
Spreads and Sensibility
Some investors believe real estate has become overpriced. Property sale prices are higher (as measured by cap rates or going-in rates of return) despite tough property market fundamentals.
[May/June 2003]
Stock Challenge Update
Let the games begin. Seven industry experts will participate in the initial Real Estate Portfolio Stock Challenge.
[March/April 2003]
Portfolio Launches Stock Challenge
There has been a lot of talk in this issue about how real estate stocks will perform in 2003. Will it be another strong year for the industry?
[January/February 2003]
Expanding the REIT Investor Base
As REIT stocks have outperformed other investments, grown in popularity and become more liquid in recent years, Portfolio asked fund managers if they have seen evidence that the investor base for the industry has expanded or diversified to include more general equity managers and non-dedicated investors.
[November/December 2002]
Change as Motif
Change has been a hallmark of the REIT industry during its entire 40-year history. The most obvious change has been the tremendous explosion in size. At the end of 1971, after its first decade, total equity market cap was just $1.5 billion. By the end of last year, the industry's total equity market cap had grown to over $124 billion, including 167 Equity REITs with a combined equity market cap of $118 billion.
[November/December 2000]
The Cost of Capital Conundrum
The gloom has lifted from Reitville. By August the NAREIT
Equity Index had chalked up a 22.4 percent total return. But, it would be dangerous
to overestimate the extent to which the perception of REITs has changed from
last year.
[September/October 2000]
Just Say "No"
While the Bear devours complacent investors, the Bull climbs a wall of worry. If the significant improvement we've seen in REIT stock prices beginning late last year is, indeed, the beginning of a new bull market, one major worry for investors will be whether higher REIT prices will be greeted with a wave of new equity offerings.
[July/August 2000]
In Search Of…
Many individual investors have asked me "What should I look for in a REIT?
Are there any tests by which a quality REIT can be measured?" There are as many
answers to these questions as there are REIT investors...
[May/June 2000]
Dedication, Perseverance and Patience
The public market is a strange beast. While some claim it is efficient and
rational, the student of market history knows that it's often fickle, emotional
and short-sighted.
[March/April 2000]
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