Cambridge Realty Capital Companies recently reported the firm processed 19.5 percent fewer loan origination requests during the first quarter of 2009 than it did for the same period last year.
Cambridge Chairman Jeffrey A. Davis said the company reviewed 74 loan origination requests totaling $1.19 billion through the first three months of this year. This compares with 92 loans requests totaling $1.55 billion for the same quarter in 2008. For the month of March, the company processed 23 origination requests, compared with 35 for the same month in 2008. Dollar volume for the month was down, from $540.6 million in 2008 to $442.4 million a year later. Davis points out that lenders close a relatively small percentage of origination requests received. But it’s useful to track this information as an indication of market directions, he believes.
“What the data tells us is that there’s been a marked drop in enthusiasm levels and transaction size, but nothing surprising given the severity of the current economic downturn. We’re finding borrowers are still trying to find ways to get things done despite the credit squeeze,” he said. Privately owned since its founding in 1983 as a real estate investment banker specializing in commercial real estate properties, Cambridge today has three distinctive business units: FHA-insured HUD loans, conventional financing, and investments and acquisitions. The company is one of the nation’s leading senior housing and healthcare debt and equity capital providers, with more than 300 closed transactions totaling more than $2.75 billion since the mid-1990s.
