Thursday, November 13, 2008

CalPERS losing it's (my) shirt


LA Times
Nov. 13, 2008
Marc Lifsher

The value of residential real estate investments owned by the country's largest public pension fund has plummeted 35%, a paper loss of $3.3 billion for current workers, retirees and their state and local government employers.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System reported Wednesday that in the year ended June 30 its real estate portfolio declined to $6.08 billion from $9.36 billion, based on 461 independent appraisals of its investments in 288,000 housing units.

The decline in real estate represents a portion of CalPERS losses since the fund hit a high of $247.7 billion on June 30, 2007. It fell to $239.2 billion a year later and since then has plunged a further 23% to $184.2 billion as of Monday.

CalPERS provides pension benefits for 1.6 million current and former employees of the state and many local governments (ME) and school districts. Those employers could be forced to increase their contributions to the pension fund if CalPERS investment performance does not turn around in the next couple of years.

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