DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.
Issue link: http://digital.dsnews.com/i/1517420
MortgagePoint ยป Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 60 March 2024 J O U R N A L COMMERCIAL/ MULTIFAMILY BORROWING RISES IN Q4 A ccording to the Mortgage Bank- ers Association's (MBA) Quar- terly Survey of Commercial/ Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Origina- tions, commercial and multifamily mort- gage loan originations were 25% lower in Q4 of 2023 compared to a year earlier and increased 13% from Q3 of 2023. "Borrowing and lending backed by commercial real estate remained subdued to close out 2023," said Jamie Woodwell, MBA's Head of Commercial Real Estate Research. "The fourth quarter saw a small pick-up from the previous quarter, as is usually the case, but was still down about 25% from 2022's already suppressed fourth-quarter pace. For the year, mort- gage originations were about 50% below 2022 levels, with every major property type and capital source experiencing a decline." Decreases in originations for office, healthcare, multifamily, and industri- al properties led to an overall drop in commercial lending volumes when compared to Q4 2022. There was a 68% year-over-year decrease in the dollar vol- ume of loans for office properties, a 39% decrease for healthcare properties, a 27% decrease for multifamily properties, and a 7% decrease for industrial properties. Retail properties increased 50%, and ho- tel property loan originations increased 81%, respectively, compared to Q4 2022. Among investor types, the dollar vol- ume of loans originated for depositories decreased by 53% year over year. There was a 29% decrease in government-spon- sored enterprises (GSEs: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) loans, a 6% decrease in life insurance company loans, and a 1% decrease in investor-driven lender loans. There was a 144% increase in the dollar volume of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans. Fourth-quarter originations for hotel properties increased 131% compared to Q3 2023. There was a 91% increase in originations for retail properties, a 72% Lending/Originations increase for healthcare properties, and a 13% increase for multifamily properties. Originations for industrial properties decreased by 11%, and originations for office properties decreased by 32%. Among investor types, between the third and fourth quarters of 2023, the dollar volume of loans for CMBS increased 68%, loans for investor-driven lenders increased 35%, originations for depositories increased 17%, and loans for GSEs increased 1%. The dollar volume of loans for life insurance companies decreased by 7%. A preliminary measure of com- mercial mortgage bankers' origination volumes shows activity in 2023 was 47% lower than in 2022. By property type, mortgage bankers' originations for healthcare properties decreased 67% from 2022, office properties decreased 65%, industrial properties decreased 49%, multifamily properties decreased 46%, retail properties decreased 27%, and hotel properties decreased 10%. Among investor types, for 2023 com- pared to 2022, mortgage bankers' origi- nations for depositories decreased 64%, originations for investor-driven lenders decreased by 51%, loans for life insurance companies decreased by 39%, loans for GSEs decreased by 21%, and CMBS loans decreased by 21%. MORTGAGE CREDIT AVAILABILITY ON THE RISE A ccording to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) analysis of data from ICE Mortgage Technol- ogy, mortgage credit availability increased in January according to the latest Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI). The MCAI rose by 0.7% to 92.7 in January. A decline in the MCAI indicates that lending standards are tightening, while increases in the index are indica- tive of loosening credit. The Index was benchmarked to 100 in March 2012. The Conventional MCAI increased by 1.3%, while the Government MCAI decreased by 0.3%. Of the component indices of the Conventional MCAI, the Jumbo MCAI