Somewhat coincidentally — but also possibly a telling data point — total returns for public and private real estate benchmarks — FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index (FNER), NCREIF Property Index (NPI) and NCREIF Fund Index – Open-end Diversified Core Equity (NFI-ODCE) — were virtually identical over the past decade. Annual average gross returns for the three major U.S. real estate benchmarks were all between 5.7 percent and 5.9 percent for the 10 years ending in fourth quarter 2024.

All of these returns are below their long-term averages but are respectable considering that the past 10 years included significant disruption due to COVID (many retail centers and office buildings were closed for an extended period) and the resetting of both short- and long-term interest rates. Germane to real estate values, the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury (UST) note went from 2.3 percent to 4.3 percent over that time. Still, public and private real estate returns exceeded the ave