The Board of Directors must have thought that the Managers were to blame. I blame the GAAP and the accounting firms.  I doubt that there is a good accounting model for  REITs. (But who needs a roof on such a sunny day?)

 

Some of the REITs that failed after the down-turn that started in 2006 failed because they had been paying out too much in dividends, without considering long term loan costs. Most of the REITs went bankrupt with just a few exceptions. The ones that survived weren't as exposed to the home mortgage bubble. The companies that have been able to buy fire sale assets should do very well over the next five years.

 

Meanwhile, there has been little action to eliminate the market manipulation that goes on with the big investment banks.  Goldman's manipulation of the ABX, the sale of bonds that were improperly rated by Moody, Fitch, and S&P, and the CDO "insurance" bets just about destroyed the world's banking system, and no one has gone to jail. What a world!