New CMBS Issues Come On Strong

Fitch Ratings headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

NEW YORK CITY—Continuing the momentum identified by CBRE in its second-quarter Lending Momentum Index earlier this month, CMBS issuance in July reached $9.4 billion, Fitch Ratings said Friday. The strong new issuance volume went a long way toward the biggest monthly decline in delinquencies for Fitch-rated CMBS since January 2016, when the Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town loan was resolved.

That being said, pre-2009 deals are more likely by far to be in arrears than so-called CMBS 2.0 transactions. While July’s 12-basis point decline brought the overall CMBS delinquency rate down to 3.60%, for CMBS 1.0 the late-pay rate is now 35.33%, up 369 bps from the previous month. Delinquencies on legacy securitizations have increased in each of the past 18 months.