While Gluskin Sheff chief strategist David Rosenberg has been bearish on the economy and stocks for a long time, he still sees some investment opportunities in this environment.

“The best advice I can give is to search for sources of relatively secure income,” he writes in a report obtained by Business Insider.

“This can mean select REITs [real estate investment trusts] — especially with the U.S. residential rental vacancy rate edging down to a mere 4.6 percent and rental growth steady at roughly 1 percent in the third quarter.”

Editor's Note: The Truth About the Economy — Government Documents Lead to Eerie Conclusion

While apartment REITs now yield only 1.7 percent on average, after steep increases in share prices over the past 3 ½ years, that’s still well above medium-term Treasury yields, Rosenberg notes.

One apartment REIT analysts are high on is AvalonBay Communities, partly for the choice locations of its properties.

AvalonBay should achieve a 6.5 percent increase in average rental rates this year, Standard & Poor’s Royal Shepard writes in a report obtained by Moneynews.

Be careful, though. That huge run-up of the last 3 ½ years has left apartment REITs 20 percent overvalued, Morningstar analyst Philip Martin tells Bankrate.com. “We don’t think that’s sustainable, but fundamentals will remain strong through 2013.”

Another investment Rosenberg likes is corporate bonds. “Intermediate investment grade bonds too are a happy medium between risky equity markets and safe Treasurys,” he writes.

Mutual funds with that paper have generated a return of more than 6 percent so far this year, Rosenberg says.

Editor's Note: The Truth About the Economy — Government Documents Lead to Eerie Conclusion