Market Commentary

An estimated 150 million Americans live in households that are invested in REIT stocks in 2022 directly or indirectly through mutual funds, ETFs, or target date funds, new research by Nareit shows.

REITs and stocks posted their first positive monthly performance since July.

After experiencing two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the first half of 2022, U.S. real GDP grew by 2.6% in the third quarter this year.

The U.S. is shifting toward a greater interest in renewable energy, and the rooftop areas of buildings across the country offer a potential source of energy generation with the installation of solar panels.

With inflation remaining at 40-year highs, interest rates escalating, and economic growth contracting, the U.S. economy is in a precarious state.

U.S. REITs raised $6.2 billion from secondary debt and equity offerings in the third quarter of 2022, down from $11.1 billion raised in the second quarter.

Nareit’s annual update of REIT property counts and estimated gross asset values by state and property sector is now available on the REITs Across America website.

In September, REITs and stocks posted their worst monthly performance since March 2020, as a hawkish Federal Reserve warned that measures to bring inflation under control could bring “some pain” to U.S. financial markets, and Treasury yields continued to rise.

REITs supported an estimated 3.2 million fulltime equivalent (FTE) jobs in the U.S. in 2021, producing $229 billion in labor income, according to EY’s latest Economic Contribution of REITs report, commissioned by Nareit.

The average office occupancy rate rose almost 4% in the week after the holiday.

A new Morningstar Associates analysis, sponsored by Nareit, found that the optimal portfolio allocation to REITs ranges between 5% and 18%.

Recent data from CoStar highlight some of the supply and demand differences across sectors. In the second quarter of 2022, demand continued to outstrip supply for both industrial and retail, while apartment and office demand fell short of their respective supply counterparts.