Boxwood Participates in CREF Small Loan Session

The consensus among panelists at the Small Loan session of the Mortgage Bankers Association CREF conference was that this year would present solid opportunities for originators but fall short of last year's successes. In his presentation about the small-balance space, Randy Fuchs indicated that originations in the third quarter of last year were $31 billion, down almost 15% year over year. Full-year totals were unlikely to meet the $140 billion of the previous year as the once-hot, acquisition loan market has significantly cooled off. Meanwhile, Randy suggested that fears about deteriorating small-loan performance are premature: i.e., at 0.46% as of January, small-loan delinquencies are near historic lows and are closely tracking delinquencies for all conduit deals.