Although the long-term pace of CMBS defaults ismoderating, delinquencies in securitized mortgages are far from athing of the recent past. Fitch Ratings saidFriday that the cumulative default rate among CMBS crept up 25basis points to 12.96% during the first quarter of this year, whilea few days prior, the latest Monthly CMBS Delinquency Report fromMorningstar found that the delinquent unpaidbalance for CMBS increased by $1.71 billion during March, the firstreported increase since October 2011.

Over the past year, the delinquent unpaid balance hasvacillated—by $1 billion or more—between increases and decreases ona month-to-month basis, with the balance decreasing in seven of thepreceding 12 months. Morningstar attributed this to “an overalltrend of volatility” seen in legacy CMBS.

For its part, Fitch says the cumulative default rate would reach15.42% if loans that did not refinance at maturity were included.The agency expects the pace of new defaults this year to be“relatively stable” compared to ‘11 levels. Newly defaulted loansfor Q1 totaled $1.7 billion, or 155 Fitch-rated loans.