AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
Byline: PAUL KATZEFF
The ongoing correction left only two sector-fund categories -- real estate and gold -- in positive territory for the month, based on preliminary data from Lipper Inc.
Still, all sectors but gold and tech had gains for the first quarter.
Yield from real estate investment trusts for the quarter through March 30 averaged 5.17%, says the National Association of REITs. And yield was a key driver of real estate funds, says Richard Imperiale, manager of $44 million Forward Uniplan Real Estate Fund.
Shareholders whose main priority is income found real estate funds offering comparable or superior yield vs. bonds, certificates of deposit and money market funds, he says.
"And when they factored in total return, REIT funds looked even better," Imperiale said.
Foreign buying was a second reason shareholders continued to flock to real estate funds. A recent change in Japanese pension law permitted public retirement plans to invest in U.S. REITs.