Commercial and multifamily mortgage volume totaled $490.6 billion last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) 2016 Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Annual Origination Volume Summation released today.

While the reported dollar volume for commercial mortgage lending fell from 2015 to 2016 by three percent, 2016 was still good year for the industry.

“Last year was a strong year for commercial real estate finance,” said Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s Vice President for Commercial Real Estate Research. “For originations, 2016 was the third highest year on record, after 2007 and 2015. Borrowing and lending backed by multifamily properties made up the largest share of the market, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac drove much of that activity.”

Multifamily properties saw the highest volume of any commercial property type with $214.1 billion, followed by office buildings, retail, hotel and motel, industrial and health care.

“The post-election rise in interest rates has taken a bit of wind out of the sails of the transactions’ market in the first quarter of 2017,” Woodwell continued. “The degree to which it and other potential market changes- such as tax reform proposals, general economic growth, foreign investment, and consumer confidence- will affect borrowing and lending in 2017 is still to be seen.”

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