JAPANESE CONTINUE TO BUY US REAL ESTATE

Japanese investors poured $13.06 billion into United States real estate last year. A study by the national accounting firm of Kenneth Leventhal & Co. noted that this amount is 12 percent less than the $14.77 billion invested in 1989.

"It remains an impressive amount in light of the US recession, the Persian Gulf crisis, the doubling of Japanese interest rates, and their government's restriction on US investing," says Jack Rodman, director of the firm's Pacific Rim practice.