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New NAREIT-sponsored research from Wilshire Funds Management shows that adding a range of high income-producing assets, including REITs, to a traditional retirement-stage portfolio would have boosted income returns by nearly 40 percent.

Advanced portfolio modelling technique using 40 years of investment return data increased allocations to REITs, high-yield bonds and preferred stocks in optimized portfolios.

REITs and commercial real estate in the United States will face a number of important questions in 2017. The economic expansion and the commercial real estate cycle are both more than a half-decade old; what are the risks of a downturn? The Federal Reserve has resumed raising its target for short-term interest rates; what impact will higher rates have on financing costs, on the demand for commercial real estate and on REIT share prices? The Presidential Election surprised most observers; what impact might the incoming Trump Administration have on the economy and commercial real estate?

If there has been any theme to the economic recovery over the past eight years, it has been “two steps forward, one step back,” and the first quarter is one of those steps back. The medium-term outlook for both the macroeconomy and for real estate and REITs, however, remains positive. 

Nareit created the Dividends Through Diversity Initiative in 2017 to take actionable and sustainable measures that support the recruitment, inclusion, development, and advancement of women, Black professionals, other people of color, ethnically diverse individuals, and members of other under-represented groups in REITs and the publicly traded real estate industry.

JumpStart is a real estate ESG education initiative with a goal to provide guidance to Nareit members and real estate organizations that are either just starting with a program or looking for further growth in existing programs. 

Commercial real estate has gone through many boom/bust cycles in the past. These cycles have inevitably affected the performance of REITs through their impact on rents, vacancy rates and property valuations. There are certain features that are common to nearly all these cycles, including overbuilding and a relaxation of risk standards by builders, lenders and investors. There are also differences across these cycles, however, much as Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina, “each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Most REITs are traded on major stock exchanges, but there are also public non-listed and private REITs. The two main types of REITs are equity REITs and mortgage REITs, commonly known as mREITs. Equity REITs generate income through the collection of rent on, and from sales of, the properties they own for the long-term. mREITs invest in mortgages or mortgage securities tied to commercial and/or residential properties.