The average caseload for special servicing asset managers ticked upward during the first six months of ’10 to 17 loans, from 16 at the end of last year. At the company level, the workload ranges from 13 loans per asset manager at Berkadia Commercial Mortgage and Midland Loan Services to 36 per manager at LNR Partners.

Currently there are 5,207 CMBS loans in special servicing. Sixty-three percent of the $92-billion total balance as of Q2 comes from loans that were transferred due to imminent default. However, Fitch says the ratio of delinquent vs. current loans in special servicing is 60 to 40, and the report notes, “The majority of loans that transfer as current eventually become delinquent.” Not surprisingly, 84% of the total dollar volume comes from loans that were originated between 2005 and 2007, the peak years for commercial mortgage securitization.

Thanks to the transfer of $4.9 billion in legacy debt from the Blackstone Group’s acquisition of Equity Office Properties, CMBS loans backed by office properties now comprise the largest share of the total balance at 30.5%. With GGP loans getting resolved or modified, retail’s share of specially serviced CMBS is headed in the opposite direction: down to 20% at the end of Q2 from 32% at year-end ‘09.

Fitch says that smaller-balance loans tend to get resolved via foreclosure, discounted payoffs or note sales. Larger loans, mainly from recent vintage CMBS, are by and large being modified andor extended and returned to master servicing, the agency says. Fitch plans to assess the various types of modifications being utilized by servicers, and their respective success rate, in a separate report to be released in the coming weeks.