Publicly registered direct investment programs raised about $7 billion last year-about 90% of which came from real estate programs.
The figure was just shy of the $7.6 billion in sales racked up in 2003,
which was a 15-year record high, according to The Investment Program
Association.
Overall sales of registered direct investment
programs have risen dramatically since 2002, when the market totaled
$4.3 billion.
Real estate sales totaled $6.7 billion, of which $6.3 billion were sales of non-traded REITs.
"Income-oriented direct investments are benefiting
from demographic trends and the changes in investor attitudes
accompanying them," says Larry Goff, chairman of the Investment Program
Association. "Baby boomers approaching their retirement years are
progressively less interested in the total return emphasized by other
vehicles and increasingly concerned about the current income their
investments produce."