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CREFC’s Lisa Pendergast Sees Industry Moving into “Constructive Period” (VIDEO)

At the CREFC Annual Conference held earlier this month, CEO Lisa Pendergast summed up the current state of commercial real estate finance in an interview with Connect CRE. She characterized the industry as moving into a “constructive period,” despite the challenges of high interest rates.

“We have a significant amount–billions of dollars of loans that are maturing, that have 4% coupons on their mortgage rate, and yet we’re now talking somewhere in the 6.5% – 7% [range] if you were to refinance today,” Pendergast told Connect CRE. She added that she was “not too optimistic” that we’ll be seeing significant rate cuts soon, but once the elevated inflation rate comes down, refinancing can proceed in a much more “accretive” way.

In the video below, Pendergast also reflected on a CRE finance career that has spanned decades, and offered advice to industry members in the early stages of their own careers.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 16-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 7-10 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).