Who Will Step Up For Multifamily Lending?

SAN DIEGO-A planned 10% reduction in new multifamily lending from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this year—down from last year’s combined $63 billion to a maximum of $57 billion in 2013—could have serious implications for the sector in the fourth quarter and beyond if other sources don’t step up and fill the gap, Gordon Gerson of locally based Gerson Law Firm tells GlobeSt.com. The big question in the capital-markets arena is how fast other providers of multifamily financing come to the plate.

“It’s not like the faucet is going to be turned off,” says Gerson. “It’s not a time for folks to panic because if the GSEs drop their lending 10% this as they’re planning to, they will still do around $57 billion this year, and even if you divide that by quarters, there would still be production in the last quarter—it just might not be production at the same level as the prior three quarters.”