The delinquency rate on commercial mortgage-backed securities climbed 3 basis points in March to 9.42%, the highest level on record in the CMBS sector, according to analytics firm Trepp LLC. At the same time, Trepp said despite the record-setting rate, the month-over-month increase between February and March is “even smaller than February’s increase” and one of the smallest jumps since the onset of the credit crunch. Trepp’s delinquency rate analysis deals with loans that are 30-plus days or more delinquent, in foreclosure or classified as REOs. The total value of delinquent CMBS loans exceeds $61.5 billion, Trepp said. Trepp said the lodging and office segments of the market raised the nation’s overall delinquency rate last month by increasing 136 and 3 basis points, respectively. Even though the multifamily sector saw an improvement of 40 basis points, it remained the worst performing property type. “We believe that the overall delinquency rate will continue to rise over the next six months, but at a pace similar to what we’ve seen recently, not the 40 basis point jumps that we saw in 2009 and early 2010,” said Manus Clancy, managing director of Trepp. “You cannot discount entirely, however, the possibility that we (will) see the rate decline slightly in one of these months.” Write to Kerri Panchuk.