Apartment Investment Loan Rates Drift Lower But Spread Widens

Over the last month the apartment loan rate we track eased slightly from 5.17% to just under 5 at 4.959% as the 10 year Treasury continued to fall causing the spread to rise above its 6 month average for the first time since July of last year but remains tighter than a year ago:

Apartment Investment Loan Rate versus 10 year Treasury Feb 2014

Speaking of the spread between the T10 and the ten year apartment loan rate, now that Continue reading Apartment Investment Loan Rates Drift Lower But Spread Widens

Apartment Building Financing Outlook for 2014

Apartment building investment loans in 2014,  thoughts and predictions on what’s in store from lenders large and small and the organizations who represent them:

Greystone via MultiHousingNews: We do think there will be more capital available,” says Bob Barolak, co-COO at Greystone. Lenders will become even more eager to make loans in the multifamily space, he says, because of greater confidence in the economy and markets.

Another major reason for an expected bump in capital available in the next 12 months is that CMBS financing has come back into the multifamily sector—from a volume of practically zero in 2012. They will continue to increase market share significantly in 2014.” Currently, CMBS multifamily financings are carrying interest rates of about 5.10 to 5.20 percent, or about 10 to 15 basis points lower than rates in Fannie Mae transactions, according to Barolak.

Maximum LTVs on CMBS loans—up to 75 percent on 10-year terms for multifamily properties—have also become competitive with those of Fannie and Freddie loans. Moreover, CMBS lenders can become “extremely aggressive” for deals they want to acquire to round up a securitization pool, Barolak says. In such instances, “they can dramatically lower the interest rate significantly below what Fannie and Freddie will offer.”

Life insurance companies are another Continue reading Apartment Building Financing Outlook for 2014

Good News on Latest 10yr Treasury, Apartment Building Loan Rates and Spread Chart

In more good news for apartment building investors, both the 10 year Treasury and apartment loan rates have moderated since the Fed’s “non-taper” announcement in mid-September. The spread between the T10 and the 10 year apartment loan rate we track has come in as well. Since 9/16 the Treasury has drifted down from 2.88% to yesterday’s quote of 2.53% while the loan rate has moved from 5.282 down to 4.921, bringing the spread in to 2.381 from 2.402. The average spread for 2013 has also narrowed to 2.573%:

 

10yr Treasury and Apartment Building Loan rates as of October 29 2013. More at www.ashworthpartners.com

Notes about the apartment Continue reading Good News on Latest 10yr Treasury, Apartment Building Loan Rates and Spread Chart

Multifamily Loan Rates Moderate Then Dip, Good For Apartment Building Investors.

10 year apartment building loan rates had been in a range the last few weeks until Ben Bernanke ‘failed to taper’ last Wednesday causing the bellwether 10 Year Treasury to fall about a dozen basis points to today’s quote of 2.72%. This is good news for apartment building investors, home buyers and builders, stock market speculators, just about everyone except savers, retirees and the people running retirement plans. The upside is that loan rates may head lower but the downside is the economy and particularly employment haven’t improved enough to ease off the money printing pedal.

Here’s the latest chart showing the T10, the 10 year fixed apartment rate we track and the spread between the two:

10 year fixed apartment building investment loan rate lower

This week’s quote for a 10 year fixed rate, 30 year amortization apartment loan is 5.131%. (See below for more detail on this loan). The other thing noticeable on the chart is that the spread between the rates has been below the yearly average consistently since the beginning of July. In fact the average spread has fallen to 2.602 from 2.661 over that period. Partly because 4.5% was about as low apartment rates were going to go no matter how far down Treasuries went but also I think that lenders are getting more aggressive, especially in the multifamily sector.

Continue reading Multifamily Loan Rates Moderate Then Dip, Good For Apartment Building Investors.

Apartment Building Loan Rates Rise as 10yr Treasury jumps 31bp in Ten Days

After two weeks of holding at 5.068% the apartment loan rate we track rose to 5.274%, pushed higher by the 10yr Treasury moving up 31 basis points in the last week and a half. The spread between the two remained below the 2013 average of 2.628, coming in at 2.394:

Aparment Building Loan Rates Rise August 20 2013

This means that the monthly payment on a $1,000,000 apartment building investment loan with 30 year amortization would rise from Continue reading Apartment Building Loan Rates Rise as 10yr Treasury jumps 31bp in Ten Days

Don’t worry, be happy. US recession chances ‘smoothed’ away.

Three weeks ago we posted an update on the probability of recession that had jumped up into the warning zone: Update on Recession Probability: Rough Seas Ahead? The chart from the St. Louis Fed’s FRED data looked like this:

US recession warning from St. Louis Fed

Only twice in the last forty five years has the level gotten this high without a recession following soon after. The chart is usually updated only once a month but I check it every week, especially since it had risen. When I checked this week I got quite a shock because the high levels I had seen earlier had disappeared:

Chances of US recession August 2013

WT…? It turns out that the ‘Smoothed’ in the chart title: “Smoothed U.S. Recession Probabilities (RECPROUSM156N)” means that the data is subject to change based on Continue reading Don’t worry, be happy. US recession chances ‘smoothed’ away.

10yr fixed apartment loan rate remains below 5.1% as 10yr Treasury ranges in 2.6-2.7% area

The rate on the 10yr fixed (30yr amortization) apartment building loan we track stayed in the 5.0-5.1% range for the second week while the spread to the 10yr Treasury remained in the 240 area, still lower than the 2013 average of 264:

Apartment building investment loan vs 10 year Trasury rate

The narrower spread makes sense in light of the July Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending that reported loosening lending standards for commercial real estate loans (including apartments) even as loan demand picked up: Continue reading 10yr fixed apartment loan rate remains below 5.1% as 10yr Treasury ranges in 2.6-2.7% area

10yr Treasury back in 2.6% range bringing apartment loan rates up. The spread also widened but remained below 2013 average.

Quick update: The 10 year Treasury (T10) climbed back up into the 2.60% range while the 10 year fixed apartment building loan we track moved up to 5.033%. The spread between them widened to 242bp but remains below the 2013 average of 265bp. This week we’ve added the darker green line to show the average spread between the T10 and the apartment rate on the chart. Note that it uses the Right Hand Scale along with the spread itself:

10 year Treasury rate vs 10 year fixed apartment building investment loan July 2013
10yr Treasury Rate via St. Louis Fed’s FRED data, contact us about the apartment loan rate and details: www.ashworthpartners.com

For details on the apartment loan we track see the notes in last week’s post here: Apartment Building Loan Rates Fall as Spreads Narrow.

How the St. Louis Fed calculates the 10 year Treasury rate displayed above: “Treasury Yield Curve Rates. These rates are Continue reading 10yr Treasury back in 2.6% range bringing apartment loan rates up. The spread also widened but remained below 2013 average.

Apartment Building Loan Rates Fall as Spreads Narrow

Back on June 24th I wrote a post Analysis on Tapering QE3 talking about how traders fears about the end of the Fed’s money printing spree made the interest rate on the 10 year Treasury jump. And as I mentioned in a follow up post Update on the 10yr Treasury rate we care about the 10yr Treasury (or T10) because it’s the benchmark most lenders base long term loan rates on. But there is one more component of apartment loan rates (and lending rates in general) that I want to draw your attention to. First an updated chart:

Treasury Rates and Apartment Building Loans

I’ve updated the chart with the latest rates and also added the rate for an apartment loan with a fixed rate for 10 years from one of our lenders (details on the loan terms below). The other thing I added was the spread, or difference, between the two rates (on the Right Hand Scale).  So far in 2013 the spread has averaged 2.65% or 265 basis points (bp) but it’s not a fixed amount that the lender adds to the T10. You can see that back in the beginning of May when the Treasury rate got as low as 1.66% the spread widened to 280bp because the loan rate was left at 4.5%. Then the spread narrowed back towards the average even while interest rates went up from there.

Then the Fed meeting notes came out in the middle of June and the T10 shot up but we got a double dose because the spread jumped up too. The Treasury went from 2.19% on the 17th to 2.57% on the 24th, and the spread jumped from 262pb to 283. It makes sense that in the uncertainty of a sudden rise in rates that lenders would widen their spreads to create a little breathing room but since then things have gotten quite interesting… in a good way. The good news is that since then the spread has Continue reading Apartment Building Loan Rates Fall as Spreads Narrow

Analysis on Tapering QE3 by Bill McBride- Not until December but #Multifamily rates jumped 45bp anyway

Bill McBride over at Calculated Risk stares at this stuff all day and has a pretty good track record reading the Fed’s tea leaves. He believes that actual ‘tapering’ of QE3 purchases most likely won’t start before December although there is a slight possibility that it could happen in September if…..

  • 3rd Qtr. GDP rose enough to make 2013 growth look like it will hit the low to mid 2% range.
  • Unemployment would have to dip enough to make it likely to get down to 7.2%-ish by year end.
  • Inflation has to be increasing. Currently the trend is in the wrong direction and Q1 produced only .3% which is well below the 2% annual the Fed Wants.

See Bill’s analysis here: Analysis on Tapering QE3 I highly recommend following Bill’s blog and this is just one of several posts in the last week on Fed comments around the end of tapering. Here’s the inflation chart he posted last week showing four different measures of inflation, note the trend since the beginning of the year:

US inflation measures 1990 to May 2013
Click on image to go to Calculated Risk article with chart.

Of course none of the Fed’s comments were interpreted this way by bond traders, what they heard was: It’s the end of the Continue reading Analysis on Tapering QE3 by Bill McBride- Not until December but #Multifamily rates jumped 45bp anyway