CMBS Delinquency Rate Hits 8.02% as Multifamily Tops Overall Rate

The delinquency rate on U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities rose 17 basis points to 8.02% in September 2026, its highest level since November 2020, Trepp said in a report published Friday, Oct. 2. Multifamily loans led the move, rising 35 basis points to 8.04%.

Trepp said five large single-asset, single-borrower loans drove much of the overall increase. They included a $1.10 billion loan on an eight-property studio-and-office portfolio in Los Angeles, a $470.0 million loan on a two-tower office complex in Houston and a $280.0 million beachfront hotel loan in Santa Monica, California. A $230.1 million office loan in Denver and a $208.9 million single-tenant office loan in Silicon Valley rounded out the list.

CMBS delinquency rates by property type

Property type	September 2026	Change from August
Overall	8.02%	+17 bps
Office	12.16%	+16 bps
Multifamily	8.04%	+35 bps
Retail	6.58%	-62 bps
Lodging	6.18%	+34 bps
Industrial	1.14%	unchanged

Source: Trepp.

Retail was the only major property type to improve, falling 62 basis points on cured mall loans, Trepp said. Industrial was flat with little newly delinquent volume.

Why is multifamily CMBS delinquency rising?

Trepp said the multifamily increase came from a broad group of loans moving to 30-day delinquent status across several states, not from a few large loans. That makes it different from the office and lodging jumps, which the firm tied mostly to the large new delinquencies above.

The September reading puts multifamily above the overall CMBS rate for the first time since the Covid shutdowns, according to a summary of the full Trepp report published Oct. 4 by Yield PRO. A year earlier the multifamily rate was 6.59%, and two years earlier it was 3.33%. The overall rate was 7.23% a year ago, the summary said. Counting loans that are past maturity but still current on interest, the overall rate was 9.66%.

Maturity defaults dominate new distress

A separate tally from KBRA points the same way. The ratings firm said Sept. 30 that the 30-plus-day delinquency rate on the private-label CMBS it rates rose 9 basis points to 7.7% in September from 7.6% in August, while its broader distress rate fell 4 basis points.

KBRA said $1.6 billion of loans were newly added to its distress rate, and 74.9%, or $1.2 billion, involved imminent or actual maturity default. Office made up 47.7% ($757.5 million) of the new distress, multifamily 14.6% ($231.5 million) and mixed-use 13.6% ($216 million). KBRA tracks a $344.4 billion universe of rated U.S. private-label CMBS.

What does rising CMBS distress mean for private lenders?

It points to more loans that cannot refinance at maturity. When a loan cannot be paid off or extended, borrowers look for bridge, rescue or preferred-equity capital, and debt funds and other non-bank lenders already close the largest share of non-agency CRE loans, as CBRE data covered here showed.

Exits are harder too. With the 10-year Treasury yield at two-decade highs, a takeout loan sized on today's rates is smaller, as our report on how a 5.31% 10-year squeezes refinance takeouts explained. Our explainer on DSCR loan sizing walks through that math. Current benchmarks are on our rates and benchmarks page, and more coverage is in the Private Credit section.