MBANow: MBA Vice President Jamie Woodwell on 2018 Commercial/Multifamily Outlook

The Mortgage Bankers Association released a new MBANow video featuring MBA Vice President of Commercial/Multifamily Research and Economics Jamie Woodwell, who discusses the MBA 2018 Commercial/Multifamily outlook.  

The video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUd-34a4WLg&feature=em-uploademail.     

Woodwell noted 2017 was a record year for commercial/multifamily originations. “We had solid property fundamentals; we had increasing property values; we had low interest rates; and we had ample supply of capital,” he said. “All those things together helped push borrowing and lending up to record levels. We saw strong lending from banks and from GSEs; we saw multifamily and office properties leading the pack and big pickups in originations for the CMBS market for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as multifamily.”  

Woodwell said despite a slowdown in recent months, the market continues to show momentum for 2018. “We do have some headwinds,” he said. “We do saw higher interest rates pick up in the first quarter; we also saw a downshift in terms of sales transactions activity and a slowdown in growth of fundamentals.”  

Nonetheless, Woodwell added, “we expect another strong year in 2018; maybe not quite as strong as 2017.”      

Other videos in the MBANow series can be viewed at the MBANow website: https://www.mba.org/get-involved/stay-connected/mba-now.