Commercial and Multifamily Mortgage Debt Outstanding Increased in Third-Quarter 2025
Industry Update
January 13, 2025
Source: Mortgage Bankers Association
The level of commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased by $53.4 billion (1.1 percent) in the third quarter of 2025, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Debt Outstanding quarterly report.
Total commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding rose to $4.93 trillion at the end of the third quarter. Multifamily mortgage debt alone increased $40.3 billion (1.8 percent) to $2.24 trillion from the second quarter of 2025.
“Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt continued to grow during last year’s third quarter, driven by strong increases in multifamily lending,” said Reggie Booker, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Commercial Research. “While economic and market uncertainty persists, agency and GSE portfolios once again led the market, with banks and life insurance companies also posting solid gains. Total commercial real estate debt increased to $4.93 trillion in the third quarter, up 1.1 percent from the second quarter and up 4.0 percent from the third quarter of 2024. Multifamily debt grew to $2.24 trillion, up 1.8 percent from the second quarter and up 5.9 percent from the third quarter of 2024, and now accounts for 22.5 percent of total commercial debt.”
The four largest investor groups are: banks and thrifts; federal agency and government sponsored enterprise (GSE) portfolios and mortgage-backed securities (MBS); life insurance companies; and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), collateralized debt obligation (CDO) and other asset-backed securities (ABS) issues.
Commercial banks continue to hold the largest share (37 percent) of commercial/multifamily mortgages at $1.8 trillion. Agency and GSE portfolios and MBS are the second-largest holders of commercial/multifamily mortgages (23 percent) at $1.11 trillion. Life insurance companies hold $783 billion (16 percent), and CMBS, CDO and another other ABS issues hold $642 billion (13 percent). Many life insurance companies, banks and the GSEs purchase and hold CMBS, CDO and other ABS issues. These loans appear in the report in the “CMBS, CDO and other ABS” category.
MBA’s analysis summarizes the holdings of loans or, if the loans are securitized, the form of the security. For example, many life insurance companies invest both in whole loans for which they hold the mortgage note (and which appear in this data under Life Insurance Companies) and in CMBS, CDOs and other ABS for which the security issuers and trustees hold the note (and which appear here under CMBS, CDO and other ABS issues).
MULTIFAMILY MORTGAGE DEBT OUTSTANDING
Looking solely at multifamily mortgages in the third quarter of 2025, agency and GSE portfolios and MBS hold the largest share of total multifamily debt outstanding at $1.11 billion (50 percent), followed by banks and thrifts with $651 billion (29 percent), life insurance companies with $263 billion (12 percent), state and local government with $93 billion (4 percent), and CMBS, CDO and other ABS issues holding $70 billion (3 percent).
CHANGES IN COMMERCIAL/MULTIFAMILY MORTGAGE DEBT OUTSTANDING
In the third quarter, agency and GSE portfolios and MBS saw the largest gains in dollar terms in their holdings of commercial/multifamily mortgage debt – an increase of $27.8 billion (2.6 percent). Bank and thrifts increased their holdings by $13.8 billion (0.8 percent), life insurance companies increased their holdings by $12.1 billion (1.6 percent), and Federal government increased their holdings by $1.2 billion (1.2 percent).
In percentage terms, agency and GSE portfolios and MBS saw the largest increase – 2.6 percent – in their holdings of commercial/multifamily mortgages. Conversely, REITs saw their holdings decrease 2.5 percent.
CHANGES IN MULTIFAMILY MORTGAGE DEBT OUTSTANDING
The $40.3 billion increase in multifamily mortgage debt outstanding from the second quarter of 2025 represents a quarterly gain of 1.8 percent. In dollar terms, agency and GSE portfolios and MBS saw the largest gain – $27.8 billion (2.6 percent) – in their holdings of multifamily mortgage debt. Bank and thrifts increased their holdings by $6.4 billion (1.0 percent), and life insurance companies increased by $6.4 billion (2.5 percent).
Nonfinancial corporate business saw the largest percentage increase in their holdings of multifamily mortgage debt, up 7.3 percent. State and local government retirement funds saw the largest decline in their holdings of multifamily mortgage debt at 1.9 percent.
MBA’s analysis is based on data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Financial Accounts of the United States, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Quarterly Banking Profile, and data from Trepp LLC. More information on this data series is contained in Appendix A.
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