Ronald Havner, chairman and CEO of self-storage real estate investment trust Public Storage Inc., has been elected as chair for the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). Havner will take the place of retiring 2013 Chair W. Edward Walter, president and CEO of Host Hotels & Resorts, at a time when self-storage has consistently been among the top-performing industry REITs.

I am honored to serve as NAREITs chair for 2014, Havner said. I am looking forward to building on the strong foundation established by Ed Walter and all of the prior NAREIT chairs who have served the REIT industry so well.

In addition to Havner, NAREIT officers for 2014 include David J. Neithercut, president and CEO of Equity Residential (first vice chair); David B. Henry, vice chairman, president and CEO of Kimco Realty Corp. (second vice chair); and Edward J. Fritsch, president and CEO of Highwoods Properties Inc. (treasurer). All NAREIT officers also serve on the associations executive board. NAREIT also named members to its 2014 executive board and board of governors.

Havner will moderate a two-hour panel discussion titled 20 Years Later: What's Ahead for REITs, as part of the REITWorld 2013 convention in San Francisco this week. The lunch session is scheduled for noon tomorrow.

NAREIT also released a market update last week revealing the performance of several REIT sectors, including self-storage. Through the first 10 months of the year, self-storage ranked third among U.S. REIT market sectors. The industry was up 20.91 percent through October, trailing only commercial-financing mortgage REITs (26.02 percent total return) and lodging/resorts, which was up 23.59 percent. As a sector, self-storage posted a 19.94 percent total return last year, down from 35.22 percent in 2011.

Taken as a whole, U.S. REIT stocks underperformed the S&P 500 in October and for the first 10 months of the year, according to NAREIT. The FTSE NAREIT All REITs Index, which includes both equity and mortgage REITs, delivered a 4.06 percent gain in October, while the S&P 500 was up 4.6 percent. Through October, the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index gained 7.49 percent compared to the S&P 500s 25.3 percent gain.

FTSE is an independent company owned jointly by The Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange. The Index Series presents investors with a comprehensive family of real estate investment trust performance indexes spanning the commercial real estate space across the U.S. economy, offering exposure to all investment and property sectors.

NAREIT is the representative voice for REITs and publicly traded real estate companies.