Many recent reports on commercial real estate focus on loan maturity, delinquency, and special servicing. It's easy to forget that these are not the majority of loans. Trepp brings that out in a surprising report of success that has left lenders needing to decide what to do next.

Mortgage REITs in the second quarter of 2023 saw a jump in loan repayments of nearly 80% compared to the first quarter. "This contributed to the 2.5% reduction in their collective portfolios to $92.67 billion," wrote Orest Mandzy, managing editor of Trepp's CRE Direct.

What seems strange is that with all the talk of CRE deals needing refinancing, loan originations by the REITs was "nearly non-existent again during the second quarter," Mandzy wrote. "Instead, their liquidity has jumped by 14% from the first quarter to $11.18 billion. If market conditions were in their favor, they could use that liquidity to originate at least another $20 billion of loans."