The nation’s largest publicly traded home and auto insurer has cut its commercial-real- estate related investments by more than $4 billion this year, Bloomberg reported.

As Allstate Corp. works to shed its municipal bond holdings, which fell to $22.1 billion in the third quarter, a $1.44 billion decrease, the company’s commercial-mortgage-backed assets dropped to $3.74 billion from $5.84 billion as of Dec. 31, regulatory filings show.

“We made a very conscious choice to leave our significant credit exposure in place, and frankly, it’s paid off nicely,” Judy Greffin, Allstate’s chief investment officer, told Bloomberg on Monday.

As of Sept. 30, the value of Northbrook, Ill.-based insurer’s investment portfolio stood at $100.6 billion.

“Our outlook is still fairly negative on commercial real estate,” Greffin said. “Our outlook is still for it to struggle. We have a bias for selling. At some point there will be an opportunity to buy commercial real estate; we want to be in a position to take advantage of that.”

According to a Nov. 13 report by Fitch Ratings, barring a recovery in the commercial real estate sector, life insurers stand to lose up to as $22.6 billion in that market.

“Fitch expects the realization of commercial mortgage-backed securities losses to accelerate in the near term as many securities have experienced rating downgrades and market value losses,” the report said.