Real estate can and should be part of your investment thinking. This is true even if the only real estate you own is your home. You may think of your home in non-financial terms-a haven from the daily grind, a spot to put your feet up and let your hair down, or a meeting place for your friends and family. But it can also be one of your best investments.

In addition, you may want to consider investments in income ­producing real estate. They can extend from marketable securities ­such as mutual funds or investment trusts-to a nearby property that you purchase by yourself or with friends. Why? Often real estate will give you tax advantages, a good cash payout, and reasonable growth prospects. And it is a particularly good investment in periods of high inflation. You can begin investing in real estate with just a little money-say, a few thousand dollars.

Our value-oriented approach to money planning can work very well in this area. Not long ago we were cautioning against your buying real estate that was “hot.” We believed that you could get burned from the heat. For example, one of our best value-oriented real estate investment decisions was to encourage our clients to stay out of all Northeast real estate when it was popular and as much as 50 percent higher than it is now.

Today in many markets, depressed prices and frigid forecasts for properties prevail. In fact, housing costs as a percentage of the average person’s income is at the lowest point in about 20 years. While there is no guarantee that prices won’t decline further, we believe that well-thought-out real estate, whether in the form of a home or outside investments, will present an unusually attractive opportunity throughout the nineties. We will demonstrate how you can take advantage of it.