AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust Ranks As One of Nation's 'Top 10' Performers for Fixed-Income Funds

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/AFL-CIO-Housing-Investment-Trust/story.aspx?guid={DA5B516D-8D61-4BA6-AC60-2F582D44DE22}

Last update: 12:23 p.m. EST Nov. 20, 2008

WASHINGTON, Nov 20, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) announced today that it has outperformed its industry benchmark by 93 basis points for the one-year period ended September 30, 2008, outperforming most other fixed-income fund managers. An independent ranking places the HIT as one of the nation's "top 10" performers for the period in a comparison of similar fixed-income investment vehicles.

The HIT, which was created by the union movement more than 40 years ago, manages over $3 billion on behalf of participating pension plans that have union member beneficiaries. The HIT achieved a net one-year return of 4.58% at September 30. During that one-year period, the HIT also achieved housing and employment goals important to its union beneficiaries, with investments that generated over 2,200 housing units and 1.5 million hours of union construction work.

The "Top 10 Manager" ranking came from Morningstar, Inc., which placed the HIT eighth for the one-year period and fourth for the five-year period, as reported in Pensions & Investments on November 10, 2008. The ranking, based on gross returns, compared the performance of U.S. intermediate duration collective investment trusts that have similar risk profiles. The HIT's net returns, which reflect the deduction of expenses, compared favorably to the Morningstar top-ranked funds that reported net returns for these periods.

Richard Ravitch, chairman of the HIT's board of trustees and a partner in Ravitch Rice & Company, said that HIT's strategy of investing in high credit quality fixed-income assets has served union pension investors well during the economic turmoil of recent months. HIT invests primarily in mortgage-backed securities with the goal of providing competitive returns as well as generating affordable housing and union jobs. The HIT has never invested in securities backed by subprime mortgages, and it has never utilized leverage as part of its strategy.

Clearly, the HIT's performance demonstrates that there is a safe and sound way to invest in mortgage-backed securities, an area where many investment bankers and funds have taken tremendous losses over the last 18 months.

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