August 19, 2023 | Real Estate Investment Trust, Sales, Barbie Movie and are your I Bonds Worth Keeping?

<p>Real Estate Investment Trust Months ago at my investment firm, Wilsey Asset Management, we made a decision to go into a real estate investment trust to begin buying class A commercial property that was on sale. I was happy to read recently that the big Wall Street firms are now raising billions of dollars to invest in commercial property that is on sale. If you’re considering doing this as well, be sure to understand where the properties are located and verify that they are class A buildings. You also want to make sure you are not overpaying based on the fundamentals of the real estate investment trust and you should understand the debt level and when that debt is coming due. An investor should be able to get a yield of around 5% or higher plus I believe there could be some great appreciation. Keep in mind your investment time horizon for this should be somewhere between 12 and 24 months, do not expect a turnaround in just a few months.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sales Retail sales came in with a good report as sales in July were up 0.7% compared to June. This easily topped the estimate of 0.4% and compared to last year sales were up 3.2%. Gas stations weighed heavily on the report due to lower gas prices as sales decline 20.8% compared to last year. If these were excluded from the headline number, retail sales grew at an even more impressive pace of 5.8% compared to last year. Areas of strength included food services and drinking places (+11.9%), nonstore retailers (+10.3%), and health and personal care stores (+8.1%). Areas that continued to be negative included furniture and home furnishing stores (-6.3%), building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (-3.3%), and electronics and appliance stores (-3.1%). These categories were all beneficiaries from covid, but with the beginning of the pandemic now more than 3 years ago I do wonder when some of these items that were purchased then will need to be replaced. For example, I do know laptops have an expected life expectancy of around 3-5 years so sales there