Real estate woes threaten Oregon state pension fund

The Oregonian reports:

The stock market is showing signs of life, and the housing market's plunge may even be bottoming out. But when it comes to commercial real estate, things are bad and about to get worse, according to consultants for Oregon's state pension fund.

The implications are potentially ominous, not only for the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, which has pumped billions of state employees' retirement dollars into a market that looks increasingly wobbly, but for the commercial property markets around the Northwest.

The Oregon Investment Council, a citizens board that invests the $45 billion state pension fund, held its annual review of its real estate investments Wednesday. The numbers didn't look good, and according to Nori Lietz, a consultant with the Partners Group who advises the pension fund on real estate investments, "there's still more negative news to come."