According to Mark Heschmeyer, in a CoStar Group article, “banks increased their overall lending for commercial real estate in 2012 with total CRE loan balances outstanding at year-end up 3% year-over-year. Investment property loans outstanding showed the biggest gain, ending 2012 up 11% from 2011 and multifamily loans outstanding were up 7% year-over-year”.
The most likely reason for this increase in lending is because the amount of delinquent CRE loans and foreclosed properties continue to fall significantly-dropped 29% year-over-year, so banks are more optimistic about the future of CRE. While banks, such as PNC Bank and JPMorgan Chase, have increased their CRE lending by more than 13% year-over-year, some are remaining more conservative, such as Wells Fargo, with only a 1.45% increase year-over-year. Regardless of the disparity existing between the banks, CRE lending is still moving in a positive direction across the board on average, so this is a good sign for the future and growth of commercial real estate.