The JV’s initial student housing portfolio includes 15,000 beds in 29 cities, two-thirds of them near Power Five schools.

There are excavators and bulldozers seemingly everywhere in the desert city of Juarez, pushing dirt into tall piles and carving out space to build new factories.

Diversification, fixed incomes, lower volatility and a hedge against inflation are spurring interest in commercial real estate funds.

The value of U.S. farm real estate grew 7 percent in June from a year earlier, the biggest increase since 2014.