Finance

The multifamily mortgage market is large and diverse, with 2,554 lenders making 44,623 loans totaling a record $285 billion in 2017, and loans ranging in size from thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars.

The overall delinquency rate for US commercial real estate loans in CMBS is now 3.4 percent, an increase of one basis point from the September reading.

Strong property fundamentals, low interest rates and ample financing options continue to support the ability of multifamily and commercial real estate investors to repay their mortgages.

Low long-term interest rates, growing property incomes and rising values continue to support new loan demand, with multifamily and industrial registering the strongest first-half 2018 activity.

Between 2016 and 2017, the dollar volume of loans reported intermediated for REITs, mortgage REITS and specialty finance companies; for credit companies; and for other “non-traditional” lenders grew by 56 percent.

During the first three months of 2018, commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased more than during any other first quarter since before the Great Recession.

Record-setting growth across sectors characterized 2018's first quarter, reported Jamie Woodwell, vice president of commercial real estate research with the Mortgage Bankers Association.

MBA’s commercial/multifamily mortgage bankers origination index reported an 8 percent increase in the dollar volume of loans closed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between the first quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018.

Commercial banks and savings institutions constituted the most active investor group in 2017, with $151.2 billion in activity (29 percent of total volume).

Multifamily property loans accounted for 44 percent of closed loan activity in 2017, compared to 23 percent a decade earlier, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data.

The report tracks 135 firms’ total originations activity, and includes breakouts for loans in which the firm acted as a lender and as an intermediary.

Commercial and multifamily mortgages ended 2017 continuing to perform extraordinarily well.