Multifamily

Diversity and metropolitan focus could provide resiliency in economic downturns

Eagle + West is Brookfield's premier luxury building at Greenpoint Landing.

Multifamily debt held by all capital sources continues to grow at a faster pace than the overall commercial market, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Fannie Mae set aside $752 million for credit losses in its apartment complex lending business in part because of fraud or suspected fraud, denting profits amid an industrywide scrutiny of borrowers. 

The multifamily property securities market is expected to stay resilient, despite weaknesses in certain markets due to cooling rent growth, higher vacancy, or oversupply.

Classes A through E, do not allow for payment-in-kind, which allows borrowers to use assets other than cash—such as equity or shares—to make interest payments.

The Seattle-based company's deal with Bank of America comes five weeks after the termination of its planned sale to FirstSun Capital Bancorp in Denver.

Origination volumes grew across nearly all sectors of commercial real estate on both a quarterly and yearly basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Apartment buildings, which make up about 40% of the looming maturities, are at the center of the refinancing wave. Many U.S. owners bought their properties using three-year floating rate loans during the easy money era.

While the total dollar volume of apartment originations fell last year, the number of companies making loans increased from 2022, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

A decline in interest rates during the first quarter drove a Freddie Mac indicator higher for the first time since mid-2023, while a leading investment firm announced a deal aimed at boosting originations for government-sponsored enterprise financing.

In talks with OCC officials, "it became obvious that we would not gain near-term approval given their recent experience with multifamily and CRE positions," FirstSun CEO Neal Arnold says. The companies announced other revisions to their deal, too.

Regulatory reform – rather than Biden's proposed solutions – is needed to fix the inventory crisis, some say, but others applauded the president's buyer cost-cutting initiatives.

The city claims it can build the rental units quicker through this mechanism rather than low income housing tax credits.

Income-producing loans secured by real estate are under pressure at banks, the government-sponsored enterprises, insurers, and in CMBS to varying degrees.

Stress tests suggest systemically important depositories could weather current risks. Meanwhile, single-family arrears remain low, but that business could be impacted.

Since 2019, distressed loans have increased 77%, but it is just a small portion of the $691 billion currently outstanding.

Fewer of these mortgages are paying off, adding to the amount of credit on investors' books, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Decreased availability of bank capital for new commercial construction helped slow activity from the previous nine quarters, according to a new report.

But overall volume is still expected to be 38% lower than 2022's commercial real estate originations, as higher interest rates remain a drag.