Commercial real estate markets continue to recover from the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. Credit to the sector virtually shut down in 2008 and only began to return in a limited capacity in 2010. As one of the largest sources of credit for commercial and multifamily real estate in the United States, the commercial mortgage–backed securities (CMBS) market is an important element of the more than $3.2 trillion commercial real estate debt market, currently comprising roughly 26 percent of the overall market. It is essential to have a healthy and disciplined new-issue CMBS market.

Although the projected $30 billion to $50 billion in new issuance for 2011 is well below what is needed to refinance hundreds of billions of dollars in maturing commercial real estate debt, we remain focused on restoring an appropriately sized and functioning marketplace for securitized commercial real estate debt. Yet hopes for a broader recovery in real estate credit marke