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Douglas Poutasse of AEW Capital Management

Pension capital has paid too much attention to investing in areas that only create sprawl.

By John Salustri | Updated on November 02, 2001

Douglas Poutasse thinks a lot of real estate companies are missing the boat. The chief investment strategist for Boston-based AEW Capital Management says that a much-overlooked source for shaping investment decisions is the US Census, and he claims that AEW has made lucrative decisions for its clients based on some of the data contained in the once-per-decade national head count. Particularly, the latest census reveals that the previous count contained a gross under-projection of how much the population would grow, and current numbers reveal that CBDs serve as home to many more citizens than expected. The implications for the multifamily market–and by extension to multifamily investors–are clear. Poutasse, a 10-year veteran of AEW, explained to GlobeSt.com in detail why latching onto the census is so vital, and how AEW has made the updated numbers work for its pension fund and institutional investment client base.

GlobeSt.com: You really see the US Census as a prime opportunity for real estate investors?

Poutasse: Absolutely. We’ve been working for 10 years on the previous census and its projections. Once every 10 years we get the opportunity to readjust all of our thinking because projections can be overstated or understated. It’s very important to make this readjustment as soon as possible to account for the most accurate market scenarios.

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