U.S. REITs outperformed the broader equity market in April, with All Equity REITs returning 6.33 percent versus the S&P 500 Index’s 1.93 percent, according to the FTSE NAREIT U.S. REIT Index.

The swiftly expanding frontier of defined contribution plans, and its trillions of dollars in investable assets, has been pretty dispassionate about real estate. But a group spearheaded by some of the biggest names in institutional investing is determined to recast real estate as an object of affection among DC plan sponsors.

Fundraising activity dropped sharply during first quarter 2013 compared with the high volume posted during fourth quarter 2012. During the first three months of the year, 21 real estate funds announced final closings, with an aggregate equity haul of $7.6 billion, according to Institutional Real Estate FundTracker.

Institutional investing in the hotel sector is not exactly creating a bonfire. As NCREIF reported, hotel was “once again” the laggard in the NCREIF Property Index during the first quarter of this year, with a total return of 1.15 percent, including depreciation of –0.28 percent.

There is an elephant standing in the foyer of many gubernatorial mansions, and it has grown too big ignore, forcing some governors and legislatures to finally introduce pension reform bills.

There is considerable reason for retail sector optimism for 2013.

North America continued to show signs of a commercial property sales revival during first quarter 2013, as both the number of properties sold and total dollar volume rose sharply compared with first quarter 2012.

Today’s challenges to the sustainability of both our natural and social resources are different than they were 50 years ago. Global warming can make human life unsustainable, and the tensions of income inequality threaten the sustainability of the American democracy. But like generals fighting a new war with the weapons and strategies of the previous war, the natural resources and urban environmental movements have not yet adapted to these current threats.

Through the uncertainty of the Great Recession, the turbulence of the financial markets and the agony of a slow recovery, economists and investment managers waited out what they thought would be a predictable cycle for office real estate.

Throughout most of this economic recovery, the so-called Sexy Six U.S. markets, along with a handful of foreign cities, have had a virtual lock on major real estate investors.

According to the 2013 Tax-Exempt Real Estate, the latest annual investor survey produced by Institutional Real Estate, Inc. and Kingsley Associates, at the beginning of this year, North American investors currently had more than $72 billion in uncalled capital commitments waiting in the wings. Combined with the $47 billion in new commitments investors hoped to place this year, that equates to roughly $119 billion in equity capital that is available to pump into the markets.

Investment managers pushed to get transactions closed and on the books during fourth quarter 2012, completing acquisitions totaling $12.1 billion during the quarter, according to Institutional Real Estate, Inc.’s Investment Manager Capital Flows Survey. The fourth quarter total was a substantial jump from the third quarter figure of $4.7 billion, and it was significantly higher than the fourth quarter 2011 mark of $7.7 billion. 

At the start of my career in 1985, real estate was still somewhat of a regional business where capital was, in large part, guided by gut, instinct and familiarity. Things changed rapidly as banks followed the path of the insurers and solidified national lending platforms. The entry by tax-exempt investors into the real estate equity and debt markets was accompanied by the acceptance and elevation of the real estate academic within the industry.