Investing in America? Try Real Estate or Agriculture

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Citing a stalled U.S. economy through the first quarter of 2015, U.S. News & World Report recently tapped finance expert David Kass at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business for advice on investing in America. Kass said solid options for people motivated by patriotism or portfolio diversification would include real estate or agriculture. He said real estate investment trusts, often traded like stocks, can pay “high dividends, close to 10 percent in an era when income from fixed securities is close to zero.”

Mobile technology, though, is slowing the growth of shopping centers and commercial real estate, Kass cautioned. But large-scale apartment development and management looks like a good bet for the foreseeable future as millennials leave home but can’t afford to buy. “Look at markets that are flourishing by geography,” he said. “Washington, D.C., is always stable, for example. For real estate, you want stable incomes and steady growth.” Millennials appear to be committed to urban living, so downtowns and well-established neighborhoods, especially with reliable transportation, are experiencing a renaissance.

Kass further recommended agriculture and food processing as reliable categories. Consider, he said, such suppliers as farm equipment manufacturer John Deere and fertilizer and crop engineer Monsanto. Also look to Archer Daniels Midland, which processes commodities, such as corn, into ingredients for a multitude of processed foods as part of a tested American food chain not experiencing quality problems of the sort that threaten the credibility of food supplies in China.

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