Real Estate's Evolution as an Asset Class

In this introductory article, the editors of this issue examine the impact of the credit crisis on commercial and multifamily real estate and provide a post-crisis, evolutionary view of real estate as an asset class. This is done by putting the events of the last 18 months into a broad perspective and within a framework that encompasses these major themes: 1) capital market integration, financial leverage, and sentiment; 2) the "failure" of diversification; 3) innovations in real estate portfolio risk measurement and management; and 4) international real estate. The aim of the article is to help investors understand the evolving characteristics of the asset class and to help them improve the effectiveness of actions that anticipate, monitor, and manage risk. It also sets the stage for the collection of articles in this issue that offer new insights into how commercial and multifamily real estate investing lines up with assumptions about market efficiency, outlier risks, theories of diversification, and longer-term asset and risk allocation.