California Pension Fund Writing Down $52B CRE Portfolio

Calstrs bet big on real estate and now plans to trim 20% off office valuations.

The $306-billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System pension fund, known as Calstrs, is too big to call a canary in a coal mine—and that sound you’re hearing is not singing.

It’s the roar of plunging property values going over a Niagara Falls of maturing debt as interest rates turn spreads upside down. It’s so loud we can’t hear the guy in the barrel next to us, but he’s mouthing the words “soft landing.”