An improvement in delinquency rates on commercial real estate loans was across-the-board, with some sectors seeing the lowest level of late payments in five years. Commercial mortgages owned by financial institutions saw the biggest improvement in performance.
The biggest improvement came with CRE loans owned by banks and thrifts, with the 90-day delinquency rate finishing last year at 2.62 percent. The last time financial institutions finished December with a past-due rate this low was in 2008, when the year-end rate was 1.65 percent.
The bank-thrift delinquency rate tumbled from 2.94 percent as of Sept. 30, 2012, and has plummeted from 3.58 percent at the end of 2011.
The delinquency statistics were reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association in its fourth-quarter 2012 Commercial/Multifamily Delinquency Report.
A 13-basis-point decline from the third quarter left 30-day delinquency on commercial mortgage-backed securities at 8.73 percent — making it the second-best performing category. CMBS delinquency was worse, however, than 8.56 as of Dec. 31, 2011.
Trepp LLC reported that 30-day CMBS delinquency has already fallen another 29 BPS from at the end of 2012 as of February.
MBA said 60-day delinquency on CRE loans owned by life insurance companies fell to 0.08 percent — the lowest year-end level since 0.07 percent in 2008. The life insurer delinquency rate was 0.12 percent at the end of September and was 0.17 percent in the fourth-quarter 2011.
At Freddie Mac, 60-day delinquency on its multifamily loans dropped to 0.19 percent as of Dec. 31 from 0.27 percent as of Sept. 30. The multifamily rate last finished the year this low in 2008 at 0.01 percent. Freddie’s delinquency rate was 0.22 percent at the end of 2011.
Fannie Mae’s 60-day multifamily delinquency was down 4 BPS from the third quarter to 0.24 percent — its lowest year-end level since 0.08 percent in 2007. Fannie’s rate has fallen considerably from 0.59 percent at the same point in 2011.
Fannie has already reported that multifamily delinquency jumped up to 0.35 percent in January.
MBA Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell credited improving property fundamentals and a strong finance market for continued declines in CRE delinquency.
