Waldbewertung

Turning income into capital without taxation in this world is like trying to spin straw into gold, impossible unless you know Rumpelstiltskin.

Well as it turns out he and I are on quite friendly terms and it was he who introduced me to forestry investments.

Most governments are eager to support any activities that they regard as beneficial or that allow tax planning to continue if it delivers a public benefit.

The pace of timberland transactions is still pretty slow but they are occurring (about 500,000 acres since my update last fall) and prices do not appear to have dropped below those of late last year. I think the 10% - 15% decline estimate (from the peak)  is still pretty solid.

Investor interest in forestry is building, driven by climate change concerns, shifting and growing markets for forestry products – and the good, old-fashioned portfolio diversification benefits of an asset class which weathered the financial crisis much better than most and which offers stable long-term returns. But, argue sustainable finance experts, barriers to monetizing the environmental attributes of the sector remain high – both retarding investment but also generating opportunities for early movers.

U.S. TIMBERLAND MAY BE ONE OF THE WORLD'S most overvalued asset classes.

The issue in today’s post concerns why the transaction price of timberland has shown little or no decline in value but the stock price of the publicly traded companies that own timberland has declined dramatically. I will also look at what I think is happening in the timberland market today and how I see the market for timberland investment. But first, let’s set the stage.