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March 10, 2026
The midterm election outlook is shifting rapidly with retirements, updated congressional maps, and primary losses.
House of Representatives: These retirement announcements have come as President Donald Trump and Republican leadership try to preserve a narrow House majority.
Recent Notable Retirements
Texas Senate Race
Why it matters: The messy primary on the Republican side forces the candidates to spend time and money attacking each other over the next two months instead of focusing on the general election.
Democrats have dubbed this the dream scenario for their general election prospects. A perfect storm of negative approval ratings on President Trump and competitive elections in stronghold GOP states could give Democrats a slim but real chance at controlling both chambers of Congress next year.
Montana Senate Race
One of the reasons Daines cited for his retirement announcement was the desire to avoid an expensive race by keeping big Democratic names out of the mix including former Democratic Senator Tester and former Democratic Governors Brian Schweitzer and Steve Bullock.
“A second midterm for a president, you have natural political headwinds. And my goal here was to try to make this race as least expensive as possible, given there’s a lot of expensive races on the map,” Daines said in an interview. “This was all about preventing this race from escalating into another $200-300 million race.”
Source: Semafor
Why it matters: The general election this fall in Montana is not expected to be competitive as the state has trended more red, with current Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT) winning his election by seven percentage points in 2024.
Contact James Montfort (jmontfort@crefc.org) with any questions.
News Archive
Private-Label CMBS and CRE CLOs
Three transactions totaling $2.6 billion priced last week:
By the numbers: YTD 2026 private-label CMBS and CRE CLO issuance totaled $35.8 billion, down 1% from the $36.3 billion for the same period last year.
Conduit Spreads Widen Out Over Conflict in Middle East
Agency CMBS
Contact Raj Aidasani (raidasani@crefc.org) with any questions.
March 4, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown is nearing the one month mark with little progress made on re-opening the department.
Why it matters: The DHS funding lapse began February 14 amid Democratic pushback on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding. The bill is the last remaining piece of FY 2026 government appropriations.
On Sunday, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) stated that he would like to fund some parts of DHS, but not all.
"Let’s just pass those funding bills. Let’s confine the ICE and CBP reform discussion just to those two agencies and fund the others. Thus far, Republicans have blocked those efforts. We want to fund TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard and CISA,” Kaine said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Source: The Hill
Yes, but: The partial funding of the department is likely to be a non-starter. A funding bill of this nature failed in the Senate just last week.
Over the past three weeks, Democratic leadership and the White House have traded reform demands back and forth but have yet to find a compromise. It remains to be seen if a deal to fund everything excluding ICE and CBP is a viable path forward.
The bottom line: Essential DHS employees continue working without pay, while key programs are seeing disruption. We will continue to track developments and share updates.
The mission of the Young Professionals (YP) Network is to provide a platform for junior CRE finance professionals to foster meaningful business relationships and gain relevant industry knowledge through networking events, seminars and panels.
YP programming events are developed by YPs – so the content is current and applicable in their daily work. Each YP educational event includes a networking aspect to build and foster industry relationships with both peers and seasoned industry leaders. YPs are surveyed by region for ideas for future programming to ensure educational and industry needs are met.
Additionally, there are networking only events held in a more relaxed atmosphere where YPs can mingle among their peers.
There is a discounted rate to conferences and seminars for those CREFC Members 30 years of age or younger. To sign up for the 30 and Under Program Rate join the network and ensure that you check off the box “I would like to sign up to receive the “30 and Under Program Rate”. You will be required to submit photo ID to be approved for the discounted program rate. Sign up TodayCREFC members Only
Take your career to the next level with our programming, mentoring, career planning, and continuing education. Sign up
The CRE Finance Council holds two premier conferences each year in the United States: the January Conference in Miami and the June Annual Conference in New York. Conference programming addresses the most relevant topics facing the industry, presented by recognized finance leaders.
Complementing these major conferences are After-Work Seminars, Young Professional, Women's Network, and Educational events held regularly throughout the calendar year, each of which is tailored to fit the constituencies served by CREFC.
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CREFC’s Government Relations team serves as the primary interface between the CRE Finance industry and policymakers. Through a collaborative process with our members, CREFC engages with legislators, regulators, and other policy stakeholders to advocate for policies that promote the interests of our membership and the broader industry.
View CREFC's Advocacy resources below, and get involved today!
Sign Up for a Forum
NCREIF and CREFC announce the launch of the NCREIF/CREFC Fund Index Open-end Moderate-Yield Debt, the first-ever institutional fund-level benchmark for private real estate debt funds. As of June 30, 2025, the Index comprises 12 open-end debt funds representing more than $30 billion in assets and over 500 underlying loans with posted returns since the fourth-quarter 2017, providing a robust, representative measure of performance for the sector.
Developed jointly by the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries and the CRE Finance Council, the Moderate- Yield Debt Index fills a long-standing market need for a standardized, transparent benchmark that reflects the risk-return characteristics of actively managed open-end commercial real estate debt strategies.
Consultation Phase. The Moderate-Yield Debt Index will be issued in a consultation phase for one to two years to solicit the appropriate level of feedback from industry professionals and ensure the index’s methodology and governance align with market expectations. During this period NCREIF and CREFC will engage stakeholders on methodology refinements, data standards, and reporting practices. After the initial consultation, if appropriate, the NCREIF/CREFC Fund Index Open-end Moderate-Yield Debt will be memorialized as an official NCREIF/CREFC product.
CREFC has teamed up with NCREIF to produce and promote the NCREIF/CREFC Open-end Debt Fund Aggregate (the “Debt Aggregate”). In short, this product will deliver a fund-level compilation of open-end debt funds providing financing to commercial and multifamily real estate borrowers/owners. The Debt Aggregate will be issued in a draft “consultation” format for at least one year, which allows time for industry feedback before it is rolled out as an official product.
Overview of Debt Fund Index (presentation slides from CREFC's September 28, 2023 Capital Markets Conference)
Watch the Video (video replay from CREFC's September 28, 2023 Capital Markets Conference)
For questions or to get involved, contact Lisa Pendergast
The affairs of CRE Finance Council are managed by a Board of Governors, selected from the general membership, which meets at least two times a year. During the periods the Board is not convened, the Executive Committee has full authority to transact all CRE Finance Council business. The Executive Committee is made up of the chair, chair-elect, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, membership chair, administrative executive, as well as four additional Executive Committee members. View the CREFC By-Laws.
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