CRE

The Real Estate Roundtable's quarterly Sentiment Index dipped slightly during the first quarter of 2015.

Standard & Poor’s agreed to a one-year suspension from rating certain commercial mortgage bonds and $80 million in fines to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York and Massachusetts Attorneys Generals offices.

Justin Wheeler, who was named CEO last week of Berkadia Commercial, the commercial-mortgage business owned by Berkshire Hathaway and Leucadia National, said global investors are increasingly betting on U.S. property.

Standard & Poor's will be suspended for a year from rating bonds in one of its most lucrative businesses in a $60 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Apartment financing markets began the year on solid footing, according to a recent survey from the National Multifamily Housing Council.

Commercial mortgage-backed security performance could come under further strain this year, as the underwriting on the underlying commercial mortgages continues to loosen. Here are eight indicators to consider in sizing up the CMBS market this year.

The unpaid principal balance of delinquent commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquencies fell by 23% as of Dec. 31 compared with the same day one year prior in 2013, according to Fitch Ratings.

Capital markets hold the key to the future for the consolidating Wall Street landlords, but the path through is downright bloody.

The Multifamily Lenders Council, a trade group representing companies that originate and service Federal Housing Administration-insured multifamily mortgages, states President Obama isn't doing enough to assist affordable rental housing.

With commercial real estate lenders continuing to slowly relax their underwriting standards, CMBS investors can't overlook the corresponding rise in risk.

Mortgage lending, particularly for bigger banks, cooled some in October as home buying season ended. Meanwhile, loan pricing deteriorated again, showing that lenders are still cutting rates to land the best credits.

Bond investors are wresting higher yields from landlords in the fledgling business where rental homes are financed by credit markets.

Community banks, on average, increased the size of their loan portfolios by 15% in the third quarter from a year earlier, though the numbers reveal a slowdown from prior periods.

Commercial mortgage-backed security delinquencies declined during October, according to Fitch Ratings.

First Commonwealth Financial had avoided making home loans for roughly a decade before determining that it needed to add the products to compete more effectively against smaller banks. It added the product at a time when a number of other banks are scaling back.

Fitch noted that overall the performance of legacy CMBS deals, those originated before 2007, has stabilized.

Nonbank commercial and multifamily mortgage maturities will rise by 72%, to $158 billion next year, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association forecast.

McGraw Hill Financial said it's negotiating a possible settlement of government investigations into how its S&P unit graded commercial mortgage-backed securities and recorded a $60 million charge to cover the costs.

The credit quality of U.S. commercial mortgages being packaged into bonds slipped further in the third quarter as borrowers piled on more debt, according to Moody's Investors Service.