While not as operationally intensive as a hotel, the operating attributes of assisted-living facilities are massively important to financial success. In particular, understanding your clients and their needs, as well as recognizing the importance of a satisfied employee base, will improve all outcomes over time.

Pension funds are having a hard time placing their money in real estate. They are nowhere near hanging themselves but, like the characters in Waiting for Godot, they are waiting, waiting for something to happen. According to 2013 Tax-Exempt Real Estate — the latest annual investor survey conducted jointly by Institutional Real Estate, Inc. (IREI) and Kingsley Associates — a whopping $72.5 billion of U.S. tax-exempt real estate investors’ money has yet to be placed.

For decades, a misery belt has surrounded expanding Latin American cities as people from rural areas flocked to urban centers.

One of the things you will never see in an Institutional Real Estate, Inc. publication or database is manager or fund performance numbers (except, of course, for index numbers).

When asked what the 2013 outlook for real estate looks like, the easy option might be to say very much the same as 2012. But the reality is that it is difficult to see how this year will be significantly different from the last. The market is likely to continue to be characterized by risk aversion, the hunt for income and wealth preservation. Caution is the right way to approach real estate investment in 2013, with no imminent improvement in the economic environment anticipated.

The Mexican economy had become so resurgent — with a growth rate that was outstripping Brazil — some observers took to calling it the Aztec Tiger. Unfortunately, Latin America’s second-biggest economy now seems to be losing its roar.

With $13.3 billion burning a hole in its pocket, The Blackstone Group has gone on a spending spree.

Sovereign wealth funds based in the Middle East are not as enamored with U.S. and European real estate investments these days.

With REITs extending into all kinds of niche real estate categories, it was just a matter of time before they rallied around single-family homes after scooping up a bonanza of low-priced houses in the tattered wake of the economic collapse.

U.S. REITs underperformed the broader equity index in May, with equity REITs posting a –5.93 percent return versus the S&P 500 Index’s positive gains of 2.34 percent, according to the FTSE NAREIT U.S. REIT Index.