It has been an honor to serve as NAREIT's chair for the past year. Amid a challenging economic environment and uncertain times, the real estate industry has continued to grow and prosper, thanks to compelling investment fundamentals—including current income and relatively stable asset values.

Last fall, NAREIT established several key objectives, one of which was to broaden investor knowledge and create interest in the real estate sector as an investment alternative competitive with other leading industries. I believe that our industry has made significant strides in attracting attention to the tremendous benefits of investing in publicly traded real estate.

Public real estate companies have demonstrated to investors that they are steady performers in times of economic uncertainty. More and more investors—both institutional and individual—are getting the message that real estate stocks offer high income, low volatility and low correlation with the rest of the stock market, and thus they belong in every diversified investment portfolio.

Of course, Standard & Poor's decision last fall to include real estate companies in its U.S. indices gave the industry a huge psychological shot in the arm. Currently, 12 real estate companies have been added to the three major S&P indices.

The attention and long-overdue respect for the industry was also bolstered earlier this year by Forbes magazine's announcement reversing a longstanding policy that excluded REITs from its annual corporate listings. Real estate companies are also now routinely included in the corporate rankings published by The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and Fortune.

I truly believe that Wall Street has finally begun to recognize that our businesses are well-rounded operating companies run by experienced management teams. Our companies have demonstrated strong and sustainable earnings fundamentals, conservative capital deployment and business plans that make sense.

It is up to all of us to continue to both communicate this message to the financial markets, and more importantly, live up to the characteristics that have brought the industry to where it is today. I'm confident that working together, our industry will take its rightful place in the mainstream of the American investment community.

As my term as NAREIT chair comes to an end, I want to thank each of you for your efforts to help further NAREIT's agenda over the past year, and ask for your continued commitment and support.

William D. Sanders
NAREIT Chair