Real estate was where the crisis happened in 08. Stocks crashed because of what happened to the banks, what happened to the banks happened because of bad loans, bad loans were mostly against real estate. So basically, if real estate has a bubble burst it will effect stocks. However, if stocks have a bubble burst, it won't necessarily effect real estate. A REIT is still a stock at the end of the day, so they will likely catch some headwinds, but it will still function as a diversifier, just as it should, imo.boglerdude wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 11:23 pm So in the past REITs have been an uncorrelated diversifier in backtests? With financialization increasing, should we expect that to continue? They crashed with stocks in 08. Whats the macroeconomic/real world explanation for why they might outperform total stock market. Leverage? Companies leverage too...
My subjective story as to why they are likely to outperform is that they are historically cheaper than stocks as a whole right now. Stocks in general are extremely overvalued. But, for a good number of years, up until the last year really, REIT's have underperformed stocks by a large margin. So there's the rotation to REIT's that is still relatively fresh and like most big macro shifts has potential to continue for years. If interest rates continue to go down, REIT's will also start really catching a bit as a bond income proxy by desperate retirees and pension funds. Also, if the current political and populist risks wind up following through over the next decade, then real assets in general will be where it's at. I'm a fan of REIT's right now. I'm very iffy and unsure about stocks right now.