Multifamily

The Federal Housing Finance Agency will extend the same GSE benchmarks of the past three years into 2021.

The movement encouraging investment in banks run by African American management teams gained huge momentum in recent weeks, but a spat between one of those lenders and an activist investor highlights the potential downside.

Tenants have threatened to suspend payments during the pandemic to pressure officials into providing rental assistance, but the effects on multifamily loans would compound concerns about servicers' liquidity and, ultimately, lenders' performance.

People's United in Connecticut is letting the loans run off its books as it invests in higher-yielding commercial loans.

Population shifts and the explosion of e-commerce will upend commercial real estate lending while heightened demand for clean energy, not to mention pressure from investors, will diminish banks’ enthusiasm for fossil-fuel financing.

Shares in the lender fell after it reported lower third-quarter profits, said nonperforming assets rose and cautioned that it had lost multifamily loan deals to competitors offering easier terms.

Malaga Financial has no intention of diversifying its portfolio despite heavier competition and potential funding challenges.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is revising the multifamily loan purchase caps for the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase affordable housing.

It’s hard to time the next economic slowdown. But lenders, many with lingering memories of the financial crisis, are taking steps now to limit exposure in commercial real estate, construction and other loan segments.

Bankers are downplaying such concerns, but others say a sharp decline in values on rent-regulated buildings means landlords will have less cash flow to acquire new properties.