Delinquency rate inches up for commercial, multifamily investors

Between the first and second quarters, delinquency rates of at least 30 days on loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities rose 0.05 percentage points to 0.53 percent.

Delinquencies of 60 days or more for loans held in life company portfolios rose 0.02 percentage points to 0.03 percent, and the 60-plus day delinquency rate on multifamily loans held or insured by Fannie Mae rose 0.02 percentage points to 0.11 percent.

The same delinquency rate on multifamily loans held or insured by Freddie Mac fell 0.01 percentage points to 0.03 percent. For loans held by FDIC-insured banks and thrifts, delinquency rates of at least 90 days rose 0.17 percentage points to 1.18 percent.

MBA officials, however, say that even with the slight increases in delinquencies, the commercial/multifamily market is strong.

“Commercial/multifamily mortgages are not seeing the same kinds of deterioration in performance that single-family mortgages, construction and some other types of loans have seen,” said Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s vice president of commercial/multifamily research, in a news release. “While delinquency rates for most commercial/multifamily investor groups are slightly higher over the last two quarters, it is important to remember that we are coming off record lows for the past year.The take away is that commercial/multifamily mortgage performance generally remains strong and well within expectations.”

The MBA analysis looks at commercial/multifamily delinquency rates for five of the largest investor groups: commercial banks and thrifts, commercial mortgage-backed securities, life insurance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those groups combined hold more than 80 percent of commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding.