THE DEAFENING CHATTER about the bursting real-estate bubble is undoubtedly unsettling to many a homeowner who figured their recently purchased $3 million pied-a-terre by the park was a can't-miss investment.

It has also probably scared some mutual fund investors, who decided that the jig was up for their highflying real-estate funds. Indeed, in August (the last month for which data is available) the sector had outflows of $170 million, after ending 2004 with the most inflows ($4.68 billion) of any fund sector tracked by investment-research firm Lipper.

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