July | August 2017 35
Despite a slight decrease in total U.S.
commercial real estate lending volume from 2015
to 2016, banks and alternative funding sources
continue to lend aggressively. The decrease refl ects
the fewer number of acquisitions to f inance as
investors become more cautious. A variety of lend-
ers, however, remain bullish and point to the low
loan delinquency rates, which are at the lowest lev-
els in more than a decade.
Coupled with a new administration promising
to roll back regulations, the industry continues to
be robust, according to several lending profession-
als who hold the CCIM designation. Commercial
Investment Real Estate discussed the challenges of
commercial real estate fi nancing with four CCIM
designees who are active in the lending industry:
• Elizabeth Braman, CCIM, chief production offi -
cer, RealtyMogul.com, Los Angeles;
• Darin Davis, CCIM, senior vice president of com-
mercial real estate, Bank of Albuquerque, Albu-
querque, N.M.;
• Daniel Matz, CCIM, associate director, Ready
Capital Structured Finance, New York City; and
• Heather Olson, CCIM, assistant vice president,
Walker & Dunlop, Atlanta.
CIRE : Describe the state of commercial
real estate lending in your market today,
based on your experience and your bank's
participation.
Elizabeth Braman: We are a nationwide lender and
investor, so we monitor markets nationwide using
signifi cant amounts of macro- and micro-level mar-
ket data. We are seeing that the six gateway cities —
New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago,
Boston, and Washington, D.C. — have recovered
above the pre-fi nancial crisis peak levels.
This rate of growth would indicate pricing that
is approaching peak, or has peaked, in these major
markets. In contrast, asset prices in secondary mar-
kets are recovering at a more reasonable rate, consis-
tent with national demand fundamentals.
Jason
Hosking