If you're still in the fund, pay careful attention to the purchases in the industrial portfolio. That's the area of real estate holding up best.
If you want a proxy to follow for this area, watch PLD (Prologis) on the NYSE.
As
an example of how the industrial portfolio has appreciated even in the
downturn, go to the the most recent "Fund Facts" and look at the
footnote attached to the Ontario (CA) Industrial Portfolio in the Top
10 Holdings. The value of the Account's interest less leverage increased for this holding from $346 million to nearly $358 million.
On
the other hand, within the top 10 holdings where TREA states its
Account's interest less leverage for other holdings there is a clear drop in value, which certainly impacts the NAV of TREA.
Examples of drops in value of the Account's interest less leverage:
The Westferry Circus holding in the UK dropped in value from $180.6 million to $150.7 million
1001 Pennsylvania Avenue (DC) dropped from $428.8 million to $426.6 million
Fourth and Madison (Seattle) dropped from $339.8 million to $320 million
And Lord knows what's happening to holdings not in the top 10.
On
the other hand, Brett Hammond has just posted another forward-looking
analysis at the TIAA homepage, and if you listen just to the third and
final section (Outlook for '08) you'll see that he's still keen on real estate. http://www.tiaa-cref.org/land/hammond/bh_043008.html
Bob U.
