Originations at a Pennsylvania commercial mortgage firm saw a modest recovery from the first quarter — though volume was nowhere near the more than $7 billion funded a year earlier. Earnings have followed a similar pattern.
Second-quarter commercial financing volume was 91 transactions for $1.6 billion, HFF Inc. reported in its earnings report Monday. Production jumped from 53 transactions for $1.1 billion in the prior period.
But activity sank from 192 units for $7.5 billion a year earlier.
“The U.S. commercial real estate sector has experienced a significant decrease in the number of transactions due to adverse conditions in the global and domestic capital markets combined with the continuing deep recessionary economies in much of the world,” according to HFF, which is parent to commercial mortgage lender Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP.
The latest quarter included two loan sales, four structured finance deals, 75 debt placements and 10 investments sales.
Mortgage notes receivable fell to $63 million from $118 million three months earlier but were much higher than $16 million one year earlier.
Losses at the Pittsburgh-based firm moderated in the second-quarter, swinging to a loss of less than $1 million from a $6 million loss in the first quarter. But a year earlier, HFF earned a $4 million profit.
HFF pointed to “the decrease in production volumes and related capital markets services revenues.”
The company ended June with 385 employees, falling from 413 as of March 31.
