New data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) revealed that commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding at the end of 2019 grew by $248 billion year over year.
That’s an increase of 7.3% and the largest annual amount of growth since 2006, according to the MBA’s Fourth Quarter Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Debt Outstanding Report.
“In 2019, the amount of mortgage debt backed by commercial and multifamily properties grew by the largest annual amount since before the Global Financial Crisis,” said Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s vice president of commercial real estate research. “Every major capital source increased their holdings, and some by double digits.”
Following a recent trend, gains in multifamily mortgage debt surpassed those of other property types, Woodwell added. Multifamily mortgage debt increased by $116.7 billion (8.2%) over the whole year, with agency/government-sponsored enterprise portfolios and mortgage-backed securities seeing the largest growth in holdings among major investment groups.
On a quarterly basis, total outstanding mortgage debt increased by $75.0 billion (2.1%) from the third quarter to the fourth. Multifamily mortgage debt rose by $30.4 billion (2.0%).
As with the rest of the real estate world, “a key question will be how the coronavirus and related economic shocks will affect the market’s momentum in 2020,” Woodwell noted.
“At this point,” he said, “it is still too early to tell.”
