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MortgagePoint ยป Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 60 April 2025 J O U R N A L Servicing COMMERCIAL & MULTIFAMILY MORTGAGE DEBT CLIMBED BY TRILLIONS IN Q4 T he most recent Commercial/ Multifamily Mortgage Debt Out- standing quarterly report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) shows that the amount of outstanding commercial and multifamily mortgage debt at the end of 2024 was $172 billion (3.7%) more than at the end of 2023. According to MBA's study, the total amount of outstanding mortgage debt increased by 1.1% ($50.7 billion) to $4.79 trillion in Q4 2024. During Q4, mul- tifamily mortgage debt increased by $38.9 billion (1.8%) to $2.16 trillion, and for the whole year, it increased by $111.0 billion (5.4%). "Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased to almost $4.8 trillion in Q4 of 2024, up 3.7% compared to last year," said Mike Fratantoni, MBA's SVP and Chief Econ- omist. "Multifamily debt now totals almost $2.2 trillion, up 5.4% compared to last year. Life insurance companies had the fastest growth in commercial debt outstanding over the past year, ac- counting for almost 39% of the annual increase. By contrast, bank holdings increased by just 1% over the year, with this growth accounting for 10.5% of the total increase." The four main investor groups are life insurance companies, federal agency and government sponsored enterprise (GSE) portfolios, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), collateralized debt obligation (CDO) and other asset backed securities (ABS) offerings, and banks and thrifts. "For the tenth consecutive quarter, multifamily debt outstanding increased at a faster rate than the overall CRE market," Fratantoni said. "Almost 56% of the growth in multifamily MDO ref lected growth in Agency and GSE portfolios and mortgage-backed securi- ties (MBS)." Examining U.S. Commercial & Multifamily Mortgage Debt Out- standing At $1.8 trillion, the biggest portion of commercial/multifamily mortgages (38%) are still held by commercial banks and thrifts. At $1.1 trillion, or 22% of the total, agency and GSE portfolios and MBS are the second-largest holders of commercial and multifamily mortgages. CMBS, CDO, and other ABS issues hold $626 billion (13%), while life insurance companies possess $779 billion (16%). The largest portion of the total debt outstanding, when considering only multifamily mortgages, agency and GSE portfolios, and MBS, is $1.1 trillion (49% of the total), followed by commer- cial banks with $629 billion (29%), life insurance companies with $255 billion (12%), state and local governments with $92 billion (4%), and CMBS, CDO, and other ABS issues with $68 billion (3%). The highest dollar-term growth in commercial/multifamily mortgage debt holdings occurred in Q4 of 2024, with an increase of $31.2 billion (3.0%) in the Agency, GSE, and MBS portfolios. Holdings of life insurance firms rose by $22.7 billion (3%), while those of the federal government increased by $1.2 billion (1.2%), and those of CMBS, CDO, and other ABS issues increased by $6.4 billion (1%). The holdings of commer- cial banks decreased by $4.5 billion, or a slight decrease of 0.2%. The highest percentage rise in com- mercial/multifamily mortgage holdings was 3.0% for agency and GSE portfolios and MBS. The amount of outstanding multifamily mortgage debt increased by $38.9 billion, or 1.8%, between the third and fourth quarters of 2024. The highest rise in multifamily mortgage debt holdings in monetary terms was $31.2 billion (3.0%) for agency and GSE portfolios and MBS. CMBS, CDO,