NEW ORLEANS—Commercial and multifamily loans continue to perform well, with delinquencies falling and originations up last year compared to 2012. "Clearly, we're seeing broad improvement in loan performance," said Jamie Woodwell, VP of commercial real estate research with the Mortgage Bankers Association, here at the MBA Commercial/Multifamily Servicing and Technology Conference.

Woodwell said life companies and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac weathered the Great Recession with "very low" delinquency levels. "The delinquency rate now for apartment loans at life companies is zero," he added. "Look at bank delinquency rates; they're getting to low levels. They also didn't get very high compared to the late 1980s and early 1990s. And multifamily loans held on bank's balance sheets had the lowest charge-off rates of any type of loans."

In addition, Woodwell said commercial mortgage-backed securities, with the exception of REO loans, perform similarly to bank loans. "The economy has been driving a lot of what we see," Woodwell said. "Fundamentals are improving in the economy, which flows through to the capital markets, which then flows through to commercial real estate."