Late payments on securitized commercial mortgages have reached their lowest level since the financial crisis in May, and even sooner than expected.
Thanks to the continued resolution of distressed loans underwritten before 2008 and to the brisk pace of new loans being originated and securitized, the overall Trepp CMBS Delinquency Rate fell to 4.12%, 24 basis points lower than in April and the lowest level in eight years.
This speed of the move surprised Trepp, which last month predicted that a post-crisis low might be reached “before CMBS investors fired up their July 4th barbecue.”
“It turns out that a new post-crisis nadir was achieved while the coals from Memorial Day were still hot,” the data and analytics company wrote in a report published Thursday.
The May 2018 rate is 135 basis points lower than the year-ago level. The May reading breaks the previous post-crisis low of 4.15% from February 2016. The all-time high of 10.34% was registered in July 2012.
The rate is 77 basis points lower in the year to date
By property type, the biggest decline was in the office delinquency rate, which slid 55 basis points to 5.02%.
The retail delinquency reading dropped 25 basis points to 5.72%, though retail remains the worst performing property type.
The lodging delinquency reading fell six basis points to 2.92%
Not every property type experience a decline in late payments. The multifamily delinquency rate inched up one basis point to 2.27% - though apartment loans remain the best performing major property type.
And the industrial delinquency rate increased 16 basis points to 4.69%.
