Real Estate Versus Bonds in the New World

[Paul Shannon]

Before COVID-19, bond yields were pretty poultry, forcing income investors (retirees and those with lower appetites for risk, or getting closer to retirement) to take on more risk than in the past.  The standard advice given over decades past has been a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio should last you 30 years in retirement @ at 4% withdrawal rate, as noted in the "Trinity Study".  

I was questioning the 60/40 model prior to COVID due to low rates, but with the FED dropping rates to ZERO and talk of potentially having to go to negative rates in the future, does this strategy still hold water?  

For those income investors who haven't got into real estate in the past, I could see many coming into the space.  First position debt in a syndication on the passive/conservative side, down the line to owning single family homes as an active investor may pick up in popularity to make up for the short-coming of bonds moving forward.  Many may not want to take that route, but what choice do they have to balance stock market volatility in their portfolios?

Curious what others think on this?  

I see this as an opportunity to raise more private money and a bullish outlook on multi-family and single-family homes.