The largest first-quarter increase in commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding since before the financial crisis took place in the opening months of 2018, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). An MBA analyst attributed the rise to an uptick in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).
The opening quarter of 2018 also marked the first time since 2007 that there have been three consecutive quarters of CMBS growth, according to MBA Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell.
“During the first three months of 2018, commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased more than during any other Q1 since before the Great Recession,” Woodwell said in a press release. “Interestingly, Q1 holdings grew more slowly this year than last among the three largest investor groups: banks, life insurance companies, and the GSEs. This year’s increase was driven by the CMBS market, which added $6 billion of mortgages to its balances. This is a sharp contrast to the $21 billion decline over the same period in 2017.”
All four major investor groups included in the MBA report saw increases in their holdings during the first quarter with a $44.3 billion uptick in the aforementioned debt category, representing a 1.4 percent jump from the fourth quarter of 2017, according to MBA. Those groups are bank and thrift; federal agency and government sponsored enterprise (GSE) portfolios and mortgage backed securities (MBS); life insurance companies; CMBS; collateralized debt obligation (CDO) and other asset backed securities (ABS) issues.
Total commercial/multifamily debt outstanding increased to $3.21 trillion during the first quarter, and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding rose 1.5 percent ($19.3 billion) to $1.3 trillion from the fourth of quarter of 2017.
The four major investor groups are portfolios and mortgage backed securities (MBS); life insurance companies; commercial mortgage backed securities; and collateralized debt obligation and other asset backed securities (ABS) issues.
“The analysis summarizes the holdings of loans or, if the loans are securitized, the form of the security,” the release states. “For example, many life insurance companies invest both in whole loans for which they hold the mortgage note (and which appear in this data under life insurance companies) and in CMBS, CDOs and other ABS for which the security issuers and trustees hold the note (and which appear here under CMBS, CDO and other ABS issues).”
Commercial banks hold approximately 40 percent ($1.3 trillion) of commercial/multifamily mortgages, the largest share in the country.
MBA reported that agency and GSE portfolios and MBS are the second largest commercial/multifamily mortgage holders with 19 percent ($617 billion), while life insurance companies hold 15 percent and CMBS, CDO and other ABS issues hold about 14 percent of the total.