Top Takeaways from 19th Annual Barry Slatt Mortgage Lender’s Panel and Luncheon

Top executives from prominent lenders weighed in on many capital market hot topics at Barry Slatt Mortgage’s 19^th Annual Lender’s Panel Luncheon. The event featured speakers from a variety of lending institutions that included Symetra Financial, StanCorp Mortgage Investors, Sun Life Financial, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, and Barclays. The esteemed guests were peppered with questions about their commercial lending programs, and where they think the market is headed in the year to come. Here are the insights and predictions from the panel.

• Lenders have a high level of liquidity and the expectation is that this should continue for the rest of 2017.
• There was euphoria at the beginning of 2017 about interest rates going up. Now it appears that interest rates are going to remain low for the rest of 2017. Most 10-year fixed commercial loans are being placed in the 3.75-5.0% range
• The market for CMBS loans has stabilized and will be a factor in 2017 national production.
• There remains significant competition among lenders for high quality low leverage requests. This is keeping interest rates for these conservative transactions at historic lows.
• The National and Bay Area economies remain strong.
• Lenders are focusing on making loans in top markets throughout the country that provide the best combination of population density and strong demographics.
• Portfolio lenders continue to invest in commercial mortgages over other asset classes. As long as fixed income yields continue to remain at all time lows, this trend should continue.