Idaho Public Employees battles low returns in June, yet real estate thrives

June was a challenging month for the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI), dropping the pension fund’s overall fiscal year down to -9.5 percent — the fourth-worst in PERSI’s 55 year-history.

According to a June 30 investment report, this year was only surpassed by -15.4 percent in fiscal year 1970, -16 percent in fiscal year 1974 and -16 percent in fiscal year 2009. PERSI was down -5.3 percent for the month of June, for a fiscal year to date return of -9.5 percent at $20.835 billion.

Although investment-grade bonds, equities, emerging markets and REITs all took notable losses, interestingly, private real estate saw a gain of +33.9 percent.

“June was a miserable month that closed out a terrible fiscal year … Overall, it is the worst start for the calendar year for capital markets since the 1930s,” stated a CIO commentary. “And, it may not be over. Wit