Commercial real estate continued to outperform other asset classes through third quarter 2015. With $459 billion of market value, the NCREIF Property Index total return, on an unleveraged basis, was 3.09 percent for the quarter and 13.48 percent for the trailing year. Third-quarter total NPI returns were relatively steady compared with the previous quarter’s performance, while annual performance represents the strongest total return in more than three years. More than half of the 7,012 qualifying NPI properties use leverage, with a combined loan-to-value ratio of 43.6 percent. For these leveraged properties, total returns were 4.48 percent for the quarter and 21.91 percent for the trailing year.

For core real estate, the performance trend is similar. The NCREIF Fund Index – Open-end Diversified Core Equity reported a solid 3.68 percent total return, before fees, in third quarter 2015 and 14.93 percent for the trailing year. While the annual total return is also the strong