Apartment REITs: The Big Bull Market in Housing

January isn't usually known as a time when Wall Streeters start passing around their resumes, but that's starting to change, and it's all because of bonus season. Since the financial crisis, bulge bracket Wall Street banks have been handing out smaller bonuses made up of less cash. Now when bankers aren't happy with what they've taken home at the end of the year, they start to look for options elsewhere.

FA Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that delivers the top news and commentary for financial advisors. Aiming For Mediocre Returns Is The Best Investment Strategy (Abnormal Returns) 

ByNick Chiu:The share price for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR) had increased 6.73% to $39.34 on Monday from $36.86 as reported in our last article on GMCR, published on Nov. 29, 2012.

By Zvi Bar:College students must usually choose between three options when it comes to housing while in school: (1) they can stay at home; (2) they can stay in dormitories and other on-campus housing options that are affiliated with their school; or (3) they can stay in housing options that are near their college campus that are not affiliated with their school.

By Michael Stubben:The apartment sector has entered the recovery phase of the commercial real estate property cycle. Declining vacancies and rising rents highlight the recovery phase and point to higher total returns for investors. The mid-term prospects for apartments are further strengthened by powerful demographic trends that will fuel demand for apartments creating strong growth in apartment rents and strong returns for investors.

Brad Case submits:An article published yesterday by Philip J. Martin in the Toronto Star has a good discussion of the strategic role of publicly traded REITs, and makes four specific recommendations. Martin is a Morningstar equity strategist with 20 years of experience in real estate investment. His recommended REITs are:

Quepasa Corp (QPSA.OB) owns Quepasa.com, which is a best of Facebook + best of Myspace + best of Zynga social networking site for Latinos. QPSA is the only social networking pure play that is publicly traded. Quepasa.com has been gaining traffic/membership quickly, adding 17.3 million members over the last 11 months and the growth is building momentum.