Delinquency Rate Hits Record for Mortgage-Backed Commercial Loans

Posted on April 11, 2011

Loans tied to commercial mortgage-backed securities hit a record delinquency rate in March, with 9.42% of all such loans having missed payments, loan research-service firm Trepp LLC said.

The rate has been on an upward climb since the real-estate market began to turn in late 2007. Facing significantly lower values than when loans were taken out during the peak years of 2005-2007, a number of landlords have been unable to pay off loans as they come due.

The worst-performing sector is multifamily, with 16.2% of loans delinquent.

Still, the pace of the increase in the delinquency rate has slowed in recent months, and the rate for March was up from 9.39% in February. Meanwhile, the commercial mortgage-backed securities sector is making new loans once again, on pace to issue about $40 billion in securities for the year.