Commercial and multifamily mortgage activity rose 55 percent in 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, and the improvement came for all types of loans and investments.
Lenders originated $184.3 billion in loans last year, up from $118.8 billion in 2010. While that total is far below the market’s peak of $508 billion in 2007, “commercial mortgage lending continues to rebound from its 2009 lows," said Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research.
The multifamily, office, retail and industrial sectors of the market all showed strong growth last year, and the MBA expects the rebound to continue this year.
That outlook is echoed by a recent Urban Land Institute forecast predicting that commercial real estate activity will total $250 billion this year and increase to $312 billion in 2014. The National Notary Association estimates that up to 1 billion notarizations are performed each year across all industries, with a majority of them executed on mortgage transactions.