For the week ending Jan. 10, the Bear Stearns REIT Monitor reported net inflows of $2.4 million to dedicated real estate mutual funds, although fund assets had their first week-over-week decline in more than two months because of a drop in market values. The 30-day average trading volume for these funds was up $28.4% from one month ago.

For the week ending Jan. 12, the RMS dividend yield declined 2 basis points from the week before to 7.13%, while spreads over the 10-year Treasury went from 188 to 223 basis points and spreads over the S&P moved down from 597 to 562 basis points.

As the earnings season approaches, the firm's analysts are expecting that the REITs it covers will average earnings growth of 10.4% above the fourth quarter of 1999. This figure does not include two firms that will be taking hefty one-time charges, however.