REIT Index Up 5.6% in 2001

NEW YORK CITY-The Morgan Stanley Real Estate Index (RMS) closed at 387.43 on Thursday, another all-time high, but slipped a bit the next day to 386.36, according to the Bear Stearns REIT Monitor that appeared June 8. Up 5.6% for the year, the RMS has outperformed the major equity indexes: the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen only 1.8% for the period, the S&P 500 Index is down 4.2% and the Nasdaq has lost 10.3%.

For the week ending June 6, $20.8 million was invested in mutual funds that specialize in real estate, bringing their assets to $11.1 billion, the first time since July 1998 that they have topped $11 billion. The average trading volume for the last 30 days slid 2.33% from last week to 16.6 million shares.