"Real estate is once again becoming an investors' refuge," says Scott Mollen, a real estate attorney with Herrick Feinstein LLP. "High-net-worth individuals are no longer feeling foolish or questioning the wisdom of locking in 6% to 12% returns, plus appreciation potential and tax benefits."
Over the past three years, private-equity investments in core real estate have offered risk-adjusted returns nearly 10 times higher than that of the S&P 500 and 25 times greater than that of bonds, according to a recent report by Lend Lease, an Atlanta real estate advisory and management company.
Better Disclosure Might Make Market Less Volatile
Could stock market volatility be reduced if publicly traded companies had better disclosure practices?
That is what a growing number of experts say, although their views are controversial in many circles. In particular, some noted thinkers suggest that U.S. businesses should focus less on earnings reporting and more on nonfinancial measures of a company's health. The noneconomic details that should be divulged, proponents say, include information about employees and intellectual capital, brand development and supply-chain management.
A group of partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers have pen-ned a just-published book on the topic in which they say stock market gyrations result, in part, because companies dole out data on "the bottom line and a few other key financial measures, but on little else that really matters."
"We're not discounting the financials. We just think volatility would be reduced if investors had a richer data set on which to evaluate a company's performance," says Robert Herz, an author of The ValueReporting Revolution: Moving Beyond The Earnings Game.The above was furnished by Dow Jones Financial Advisor News Service. For a free trial, log on to www.fa-mag.com.Readers‚ Favorite Web Sites
As Chosen By
Jerry Warrington, Principal Savings Mortgage & Loan Consultants in Denver
Favorite Web Sites:
www.foliofn.com; http://valuengine.com; www.easystock.comEase of use is the primary reason Jerry Warrington likes these sites.
"There are a lot of intricate sites in cyberspace, and some are so frustrating they are not worth the hassle. A lot of them are by prominent companies. Some sites lead you in circles so that you can never find what you are looking for," he comments.
A great feature of all three of his favorite sites is they allow the user to build a "watch" portfolio of investments, Warrington says. "You can install them at a price and date certain, and go back and look at the change. It can help you to prove and disprove certain theories. You think something has got to work, but you can see if it did in 60 days." He adds all three sites provide in-depth information about investing.
Of the three sites, he likes valuengine.com best because he finds it simplest to use. He does not like the layout of the foliofn site, with its rows of tabs and hot links. But he does think foliofn.com tries to be objective and organize its information properly.