On July 10 and 11, in association with NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate and sponsored by DBRS, MBA hosted its third annual CREF Market Intelligence Symposium. The Symposium has become an important forum for commercial and multifamily real estate finance leaders and analysts to come together, hear from leading researchers and discuss key risks (and opportunities) facing the industry.

Commercial real estate and real estate finance markets maintained their momentum during the first quarter of 2019.

There has been a great deal of attention paid lately to the mismatch between the supply of, and demand for, housing in the United States. According to Census statistics, the U.S. added 1.5 million households during 2018 but built fewer than 1.2 million new housing units. The result is a tightening inventory - not just of homes for sale, but of homes available to occupy.

The vast majority of commercial and multifamily mortgage lenders report they are working on the transition away from LIBOR, but the devil is in the details. The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a leading reference rate for adjustable-rate loans in the United States and around the world, and is targeted to sunset at the end of 2021.

In a search for yield and a vote of confidence in the assets, investors have pulled commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) credit spreads lower in recent years.

The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a leading reference rate for adjustable-rate loans in the United States and around the world, and is targeted to sunset at the end of 2021.

Last year, Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc. was the top investor-driven lender, followed by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Capital One Financial Corp., Wells Fargo, Apollo Global Management, LoanCore Capital, LLC, Mesa West Capital, LLC, KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc., TPG Real Estate Finance Trust, and PCCP LLC.

MBA recently released its annual 2018 Rankings of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Firms' Origination Volumes and the following firms were the top commercial/multifamily mortgage originators: HFF; Wells Fargo; CBRE Capital Markets, Inc.; Key Bank; Eastdil Secured; JP Morgan Chase & Company; Meridian Capital Group; Bank of America Merrill Lynch; PNC Real Estate; and Berkadia.

Jamie Woodwell, Vice President of Research and Economics at Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), joined the RealCrowd Podcast to discuss recent MBA research on how lenders view the current market.

2018 ended on a strong note for commercial mortgage borrowing and lending.

Prepayment of GSE and life company loans, and originations of debt fund and CMBS loans, balance out 2019 loan maturities.The wide range of topics facing the industry prompted us to develop this Bingo card - which we unveiled at the opening general session of MBA's CREF Convention - to help attendees navigate as they moved from issue to issue.

Prepayment of GSE and life company loans, and originations of debt fund and CMBS loans, balance out 2019 loan maturities.

Commercial mortage-backed securities (CMBS) issuance is tied closely to spreads, giving a sense of how 2019 is likely to shape up.

Commercial real estate fundamentals and finance markets were largely stable during the third quarter.

Numbers from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies tell an important story about affordability, and also about how households and the housing market interacted before, during and after the Great Recession.