As WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported, the city is pouring nearly half a billion dollars
of pension fund money into backing 30 - year mortgages for affordable housing.
«Steve Rattner was willing to do whatever it took to get his hands
on pension fund money including paying kickbacks, orchestrating a movie deal, and funneling campaign contributions,» Cuomo said in a press release.
The market has been propped up recently by governmental stimulus (especially at the retail level), but it has been driven for years by some bigger institutional factors (eg, more and
more pension fund money chasing fewer and fewer opportunities).
According to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF), which tracks pension fund investments, 41.5 % of
pension fund money currently is invested in the office sector, followed by industrial (19.6 %), multifamily (18.5 %), retail (17.1 %), and hotels (3.4 %).
New York's existing «basket clause» limits to 25 percent the share
of pension fund money that can be invested in alternative assets.
3) National: David Webber urges a rule change by the Labor Department to ensure that public pension trustees act in the interest of public employees, and not
use pension fund money to promote outsourcingto private, for - profit companies that kill public jobs.
«Private equity and
pension fund money is becoming increasingly powerful in that space.»
The pension fund money, which will still be earning between four and five percent, is intended to give the mortgages more attractive terms.