Daily Real Estate News  |  September 17, 2007  |   Worried About Recession? Invest in Commercial
Some people are looking at the mortgage and credit crunch and predicting that a recession is on its way. If that’s true, where should investors be putting their money now?

For P. Brett Hammond, chief investment strategist at the New York fund manager TIAA-CREF, the answer is real estate — but not residential. He says offices, industrial buildings, and rental apartments are a good bet.

''We haven't overbuilt in the last 10 years the way we have with condos and single-family homes in some areas,'' Hammond says. If a recession hits, ''we may not have a huge run-up in office demand, but we have not had a huge run-up in supply.''

A recession may even give a lift to apartment prices, he adds, ''as people who would have bought homes start to think about rentals.''

For those not interested in managing actual property, Hammond suggests real estate investment trusts (REITs), portfolios of properties that trade on stock exchanges.

Source: The New York Times, Conrad de Aenlle (09/15/2007)