Following three bank failures this spring, the general thesis among economists has been that commercial real estate has experienced a broad pullback in lending in 2023 — but not when it comes to one of the darlings of asset classes, says a team of capital markets experts at Berkadia. A review of commercial real estate loan data from the Federal Reserve and Real Capital Analytics found that multifamily lending in 2023 has remained steady relative to 2016 levels, and that smaller commercial banks are driving positive CRE lending activity across the country, as opposed to the nation’s 25 largest banks. “My initial hypothesis was we’d see a supreme dry-up in bank lending, and that just didn’t materialize,” said Josh Bodin, senior vice president of securities trading at Berkadia, and one of the authors of the report.