Commercial real estate play Boston Properties (BXP) first discussed here on June 11, 2009, at a price of $48.89, remains in an uptrend, and I obviously still like the business model at this stage.

Boston Properties is a commercial real estate survivor -- no modest achievement, given the nation's deep 2007-2009 economic downturn. Boston Properties' high-quality portfolio, combined with the fact that only about 7% of its leased space is set to expire by the end of 2011, limits the company's exposure to leases renewed at lower rates.

"Last March, we featured some counterintuitive advice to buy REITs; that basket of stocks has since doubled in value," notes income specialist Roger Conrad.

The contributing editor to Personal Finance explains, "And while our favorite REITs may not be as cheap as they were 18 months ago, they do offer generous payouts that won't be affected if the Bush tax cuts sunset.

"Not only did our favorite REITs pass the toughest stress test in decades, but they also operate in attractive localities and are flush with cash thanks to recovering equity values and attractive borrowing rates.

"Following a record low reading for new home sales, you might think now is the worst time to bet on a housing recovery," says Lou Basenese.

The editor of the Small Cap and Special Situations Report asserts, "Think again. The aftermath of such disappointing news represents an ideal contrarian opportunity.

And one such opportunity is Avatar Holdings (AVTR), which ranks as a buy even by Ben Graham's strict value criteria.

"With its strong balance Plum Creek Timber (NYSE: PCL) will be able to weather the real estate storm," says growth and income expert Stephen Leeb in The Complete Investor. Here is his look at the timber play.

"Plum Creek, which was added to our model portfolio in November, is the largest and most geographically diverse private landowner in the U.S. and owns more than 7.4 million acres of timberlands in the Pacific Northwest, the South, and the Northeast.

There are a number of ways to play the recession / depression on the market that might seem, at first, counter-intuitive but on second glance make sense. Here's one -- Public Storage (NYSE: PSA), a REIT focused on ownership of public storage facilities.

Like the rest of the real estate market, it's been hammered -- down just over 52% from 52-week highs of $110 per share. But public / self storage facilities should actually prosper in this market. Here's why: People still have a lot of stuff, but many of them are going to have less house very soon. Same goes for businesses that are putting off plans to expand offices or rent warehouses and need a place to park things.

For speculators, Martin Weiss has uncovered a stock that benefits from rising home foreclosures. In the higher risk section of his The Safe Money Report he looks at Lender Processing Services (NYSE: LPS).

"We have a new speculative pick: Lender Processing Services. This company was spun off from Fidelity National Information Services a couple of months ago.

"It is the biggest outsourcing firm in the business of processing home loan defaults and foreclosures.

"As you might imagine, that business is booming due to the massive flood of troubled mortgages -- revenues in the company's default services unit soared 90% to $197.2 million in the second quarter from a year earlier.

"LPS also has a division that helps investors, banks and other clients model prepayments, defaults and other characteristics of mortgage-related securities.

"With everyone trying to figureout the value of all the troubled paper out there, the demand for those services should also ramp up. We emphasize, however, that this is a speculative play."

Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers a daily look at the latest market commentary and favorite stock picks and investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

"A decline in home ownership is good for companies who have apartments to rent," notes The Dave Dyer Newsletter. To benefit from this trend, he looks at Avalon Bay (NYSE: AVB)." Here is his review.

"After a 10 year period of consistent increases from 1995 to 2005, the trend toward increasing home ownership has reversed and is now clearly in decline. The subprime problems and tighter credit policies will only serve to increase the decline.

"One of the easiest ways to invest in this trend is to buy shares in a REIT that owns apartment properties. Avalon Bay (NYSE: AVB.) is a REIT that manages high quality apartment communities in the high barrier-to-entry markets like California, the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

"In some cases, they develop their own properties; in others, they buy and remodel existing apartment complexes. They currently own 182 properties with about 52,000 apartments in total. AVB has 19 more properties under constructions and development rights for another 52.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My favorite 'home run' speculation for 2008 is playing a rebound in the beaten-down US housing sector," says Mike Burnick, editor of Global Market Investor.

"Specifically, I like the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ASE: ITB). This exchange-traded fund is a pure contrarian play not based on valuation, since fundamentals continue to deteriorate in the US housing market.

"The US housing market is still a mess, home prices are plunging, sales continue to slump, and inventories of unsold homes are at record highs. There's very little we can see to like in this sector.

"But, in fact, that's often the key to earning big returns in the stock market: Make well-timed contrarian bets on the most unloved stocks and sectors.

"However, I believe that negative sentiment in the sector has reached an extreme. Put/call volume on homebuilder stocks is at an extreme, and short interest is near record highs. I believe the turning point for this sector is close at hand.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"Our favorite conservative pick for 2008 is Home Depot (NYSE: HD)," says Daniel Frishberg, editor of The MoneyMan Report and host of BizRadio.

"This is a stock that has been beaten down due to the weak housing market. We believe, based on the fact that it owns most of the real estate its stores sit on and these are typically in the best areas of town, that it's undervalued.

"With new management in there and a housing market that will stabilize, home improvement will do very well over the next several years. Home Depot typically trades at 14X cash flow since 1995. Based on that one parameter, the stock could be a double over the next couple of years.

"The company's balance sheet is in excellent shape at this point. We believe most of the bad news is priced in and with a Fed that will continue to cut interest rates, Home Depot will be an economically sensitive stock that will benefit. In our view, this is a 2-3 year hold.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"Homebuilders have been in a slump, to say the least," says Jim Farrish, editor of Sector Exchange.

"The technical charts on homebuilders look very similar to those of technology stocks during their rise from 1998-2000. In fact, the index has declined more than 70% peak to trough. Looking toward 2008 and the housing market, we could start to see a turnaround.

"The start is likely to be government aided, which is why we like this as an aggressive play, as the Federal government will put more money into fixing something than corporate America. Current proposals will not come close to fixing it, but will at least put a band aid on the situation and allow the healing process to begin.

"Our vote to benefit here would be Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL). The company has one of the better-looking balance sheets in the industry and management has done a fairly good job of dealing with this downside market.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My favorite conservative stock for 2008 is Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM)," says Peter Slatin, editor of the Forbes/Slatin Real Estate Report.

"Here's a company that has it all: energy, timber and, mostly through its 50% ownership of Brookfield Properties (NYSE: BPO), top-quality commercial real estate in highly desirable markets such as London and New York.

"It also holds assets in emerging markets like Brazil, where it just acquired a major retail portfolio; and stable, well-performing Canada, including Calgary.

"Along with its office buildings in that energy and mineral boom town, BAM, which is traded on the New York and Toronto exchanges, also has a hefty stake in the region's vast oil sands.

"The company, with a market cap of more than $22 billion, is currently trading toward the higher end of its 52-week range, and its extremely professional management and well-balanced exposure to some key markets and industries will continue to make it a rock-steady performer in a very shaky world."

"While others are waiting for the next shoe to drop in the stock markets, I believe that the bottom is in," says technical expert Yola Edwards. Meanwhile, in The Internet Wealth Builder she has found a stock that she likes within "the rubble of the U.S. housing market." The stock? KB Home (NYSE: KBH).

Edwards explains, "I'm not saying that the subprime issue isn't significant, but I do believe that it is now priced into the market. It appears that the worst is over for the Dow Jones Industrial Average as well."

A technician by trade, she points out that the market is drastically oversold and the index has traced out a multi-year inverted head and shoulders pattern. Based on this pattern, she notes, a minimum upside target of 14,500 should be expected.

Meanwhile, for those comfortable with an out-of-favor, contrarian play, she sees both fundamental and technical opportunity in the shares of KB Home, a Los Angeles-based builder of single-family homes.

She notes, "Given what's been happening in the U.S. housing market, it should come as no surprise that the current financials are poor. KB Home has seen domestic sales battered by the housing downturn, which has been exacerbated in recent months by tightened lending standards by banks."

The Forbes/Slatin Real Estate Report, edited by industry expert Peter Slatin, is a professional-level newsletter geared to the more sophisticated real estate investor.

Along with his own insights and advice on investment opportunities in the sector, one feature of the service is its monthly interviews with REIT-sector equity analysts. Below, I share some highlights from Slatin's interview with Jordan Sadler of KeyBanc Capital, who discusses some of his current favorite ideas among REITs.

FORBES/SLATIN: KeyBanc is focused on the U.S. What are you seeing here?

SADLER: My view, initiated last October, was a cautious outlook overall. The recent M&A squeezed shares. We continue to feel that way. REITs are trading at a level where it's hard to justify incremental investment across the space, although you can be tactical with names that are more attractive.

FORBES/SLATIN: In your universe of tactical moves, what stands out?

SADLER: Our top pick was Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR), and it continues to be. It has fundamental drivers that are significantly differentiated from most of their REIT brethren. That, in theory, should be able to generate excess profit until competition gets hip, which seems to be slowly happening. For their type of building, there is limited supply, and a ton of demand, from financial services, Internet and enterprise companies and channel users.

In his Forbes/Slatin Real Estate Report, editor Peter Slatin recently interviewed Amit Kapoor of Gabelli Asset Management, whose specialty is the hotel/hospitality segment of the broader real estate sector. Here are highlights from the interview, in which Kapoor looks at Orient-Express (NYSE: OEH), a premium property operator.

Forbes/Slatin: "As several recent reports have indicated, hotel stocks are continuing their strong performance while the current wave of privatization and consolidation also shows no sign of abating. What are the basic reasons behind your bullishness on the sector?

Amit Kapoor: Overall, momentum and fundamentals in the hotel market are very strong. The supply is limited and it will be at least two years before significant supply comes on line and starts affecting revPAR growth.

Forbes/Slatin: You've just released a very positive report on Orient-Express. What do you like in particular?

Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (NYSE: BAM) is the favorite conservative stock from Gordon Pape, editor of Internet Wealth Builder. He explains, "Brookfield is an international conglomerate with interests in real estate, power generation, and infrastructure.

"Although its headquarters are in Toronto, its major holdings are in the U.S. and include such blue-ribbon office properties as the World Financial Center in New York and the Bank of America Plaza in Los Angeles. All told, the office portfolio holds 65 premier properties in North America and Europe. The company also owns some $1 billion in residential assets.

"On the power generation side, Brookfield has 137 hydro-electric stations in North America and Brazil with almost 3,700 megawatts of installed capacity. The company is also involved in the development of several wind power projects in Canada.

"I first recommended Brookfield's predecessor company, Brascan, back in 1997, and since the share price has increased more than five times. That's a great history, but there is much more to come from this well-managed company. Currently the stock pays a quarterly dividend of $0.16 a share. Buy this one for income and long-term growth."

To see Gordon's top speculative idea for 2007, click here.