CHICAGO-The mood, for a real estate conference, was upbeat atthe National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts’ REITWeek2010 conference at the Hilton Chicago, an event that started thismorning and will last until Friday. While the general real estatemarket is still down, trusts have raised enough capital to be oneof the few entities around with enough strength to take advantage.With returns generally running at almost 14% since the REITindustry started in 1992, “we’ve really proven that the REIT way isthe right way,” said Deb Cafaro, chair of both NAREIT and VentasInc.

Even Sam Zell, the popular chairman of many groups including theEquity Residential Trust, was spouting positive about theindustry’s success at weathering the recession storm. “When westarted, the industry was a $6 billion industry. Now it’s at $500billion. That can be attributed to its consistency. Liquidityequals value,” he said during his luncheon presentation.

However, Zell did point out that the trusts do have theirpitfalls. Investors should remember that a REIT primarily is astock, which brings all the volatility of the trading markets.Also, he said there’s too many REITs today. “If you had 30 to 40strong companies, they could operate effectively. But when you have200, it’s just too much, these small companies just cause noise anddisruption. Every entrepreneur wants their own cart.”