The delinquent unpaid balance of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) slipped $2.97bn in July to a total $25.68bn but remains significantly higher than year-ago levels. July’s total compares with $28.65bn in June, a 12-month high, according to credit-rating agency Realpoint. The delinquency ratio of the total $819.2bn of CMBS pools under Realpoint’s review fell to 3.14% in July from 3.5% in June as a substantial portion of 30-day delinquencies became current. Nearly $4.8bn loans sponsored by General Growth Properties (GGP) returned to current payment status following a 30-day delinquent status in June, the credit-rating agency said. Although the reason for the status change remains unclear, Realpoint indicated several master servicers modified their systems in July to account for the non-default rate interest-only payments made on previously amortizing loans. The delinquent unpaid balance remains 511% up from the year-ago period, Realpoint said. The balance of 30-day delinquencies plunged to $5.23bn from $11.24bn in June, but all other delinquency categories rose in the month. Sixty-day delinquencies rose to $3.97bn from $3.07bn while 90-day delinquencies jumped to $11.23bn from $9.57bn. The balance in foreclosure and real estate-owned status also rose slightly to $3.05bn and $2.21bn, respectively. Despite the monthly drop in delinquent unpaid CMBS balance, delinquency remains high year-on-year. The rising delinquency trend is evident even at loan-level data. Real Estate Econometrics, which tracks data from banks and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-insured institutions, saw the delinquency rate of commercial mortgages held by US banks grow to 2.88% in Q209, up 63bps from 2.25% in the previous quarter and 170bps from the year-ago quarter. The 8,195 institutions representing data in Real Estate Econometrics’ quarterly analysis experienced a 3.13% default rate on multifamily mortgages in Q209, from 2.45% in the previous quarter and from 1.2% in the year-ago quarter. Write to Diana Golobay.