Life companies finished 2007 with a delinquency rate lower than at year-end of all 11 of the pervious 11 years. Fannie Mae finished with a rate equal to or lower than 10 of the previous 11 years. Freddie Mac finished with a rate lower than 10 of the previous 11 years. And FDIC-insured banks and thrifts finished the year with a delinquency rate lower than five of the previous 11 years.

The new MBA analysis looked at delinquency rates since 1996 and compared year-end rates for the five major investor groups. "While the numbers aren't comparable across different investor groups, within each group they show a common theme--for nearly every investor group, commercial/multifamily loans are currently performing at some of the strongest levels on record," says Jamie Woodwell, senior director of commercial/multifamily research at the MBA.

MBA was happy to point to a piece of positive news coming out of the real estate capital markets. "This is an important new analysis that helps cut through much of the recent 'noise' on commercial real estate finance," Steve Graves, managing director & COO of Principal Real Estate Investors and Chair of MBA's Commercial Board of Governors, says. "Despite a great deal of attention being paid to economic uncertainty, it is reassuring to know that the performance of commercial and multifamily mortgage loans and bonds has remained so fundamentally sound."