As January drew to a close, members of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Applied Real Estate Investment Track (AREIT) convened before their advisory board to present how they have invested roughly $2m of the track’s funds. AREIT is a two-semester program available to graduate students at UW-Madison studying real estate. It offers two teams the opportunity to invest ~$1m each into real estate investment trusts (REITs), which are essentially publicly traded portfolios of real estate.
The two teams, termed Red and White, spent the fall semester forming their investment philosophies which involved diligently analyzing the REIT market, building theses on the various real estate sectors, tracking macroeconomic conditions and valuing individual stocks. By late 2025, both teams were fully invested – transforming portfolios which they received as ETFs and cash into REIT holdings that manifest their understanding of the market and predictions for future performance.
At the Meeting
The purpose of the January AREIT Board Meeting was so the Red and White teams could show their board how their portfolios took shape. This involved defending their portfolio construction, explaining why they believe these portfolios will outperform the MSCI US REIT Index (RMZ) over the Spring Semester, showcasing notable stock picks and fielding questions from the board.
Kyle Hooten of the AREIT White Team discusses some of his portfolio’s key metrics.
The White Team’s portfolio overweights the healthcare, data center and manufactured housing sectors, among others. Red Team also overweighted healthcare and data, but diverged notably in terms of stock selection – their choice of equities within sectors. At the stock level: both teams presented some of their best stock picks. Red Team showcased a 12.13% gain on Healthpeak Properties (NYSE: DOC) since they invested on 12/31/2025. Both teams also showcased examples of stocks they analyzed and chose not to buy. White Team, for example, passed on Tanger (NYSE: SKT) – a decision which generated alpha in their portfolio as the stock failed to perform in the RMZ index.
This slide from the Red Team’s Winter Board Meeting deck showcases their position in Healthpeak Properties.
Both teams’ accounts have grown on an absolute basis since they gained approval to trade in the fall, but they faced questions regarding how they will defend and improve their performance now that their invest-up period has concluded and they move into a management stage. Specifically, the board was keen to know how the teams will stay abreast of the stocks they own and decide when to exit their positions.
The board also pressed both teams to defend some of their individual REIT selections, challenging the students’ valuation processes.
Moving Forward
During the remainder of the Spring Semester, both teams will continually monitor the performance of their holdings, re-value the REITs they have selected and maintain sell discipline to keep their portfolios in line with their respective investment philosophies.
At their third and final board meeting near the end of this academic year, the Red and White teams will report the final outcomes of investment activity – aiming to beat the RMZ by 200 and 250 basis points respectively.
Team Members
The Red team is comprised of: Austin Bertram, team lead, trader and writer; Chris Santos, commercial real estate specialist; Nick Balthazor, attribution specialist; Sang-Il Kim, Bloomberg specialist; Ryan Baker, Economist.
The White team is comprised of: Kyle Hooten, team lead, economist, trader; Liam Smith, attribution specialist; Rutger Heffelfinger, commercial real estate specialist; Sophia Schalk, Bloomberg specialist, writer.