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CREFC Hosts 5th Annual Real Estate Debt Case Competition; Yale University Takes Top Honors

April 17, 2026

University Students Compete for $45,000 in Prize Money

NEW YORK, NY – April 17, 2026 – The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) this week hosted its 5th Annual Real Estate Debt Case Competition, bringing together top undergraduate and graduate students from 11 leading U.S. universities for an intensive, real-world commercial real estate finance challenge.

Now in its fifth year, the competition has become a cornerstone of CREFC’s efforts to connect emerging talent with the industry, giving students a hands-on opportunity to analyze, structure, and present a complex commercial real estate lending decision under real-world conditions.

Teams competed for $45,000 in total prize money, presenting their recommendations to a panel of senior industry professionals.

Top honors were awarded to:

• 1st Place – Yale University
• 2nd Place – Florida State University
• 3rd Place – The Pennsylvania State University

“The debt case competition reflects the strength and aptitude of the next generation entering the CRE finance industry,” said Lisa Pendergast, President and CEO of CREFC. “The caliber of teams this year was exceptional. Students brought thoughtful, well-structured analyses and a level of professionalism that mirrors what we see in the industry today. It’s exciting to see this kind of talent emerging, and this program plays a critical role in connecting them to the CRE finance community.”

Competitors presented their analyses of a commercial real estate lending decision using a case study based on a real-world transaction. The teams had one week to prepare the analysis and presentation materials, which were judged by a panel of senior commercial real estate finance executives using evaluation criteria including the team’s analysis, conclusion, and presentation skills.

The case study was developed in collaboration with Ares Management LLC, providing students with a realistic and timely industry scenario.

The 11 U.S. universities with top-rated real estate programs invited to take part in this year’s competition included:

• Cornell University
• Florida State University 
• Fordham University
• NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate
• The Pennsylvania State University
• UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
• University of Florida
• University of Miami
• UT Austin McCombs School of Business
• Villanova 
• Yale University

Through initiatives like the Real Estate Debt Case Competition, CREFC continues to expand its educational programming and strengthen connections between academia and the commercial real estate finance industry.

For more information about the competition or CREFC’s Young Professionals Network, please contact Danielle Nathan. 

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NCREIF and CREFC Release Fourth Quarter 2025 Open-End Debt Fund Aggregate and Open-End Moderate-Yield Debt Fund Index Reports

April 16, 2026

We are pleased to provide you with the NCREIF/CREFC Open-End Debt Fund Aggregate and Open-End Moderate-Yield Debt Fund Index Reports for Fourth Quarter 2025.

Snapshot Reports are available to the public and also can be found on the CREFC website.

Membership Reports are located in the CREFC Resource Center for CREFC Members only. 

4Q25 Open-End Debt Fund Aggregate

 Snapshot Report

Membership Report

Snapshot Report

Membership Report

Please visit CREFC's Website for more information and to view past reports. For any questions or suggestions and/or if you wish to become a debt fund contributor, please contact Lisa Pendergast. 

 About CREFC

• CREFC is the trade association for the commercial real estate finance industry. Member firms include balance sheet and securitized lenders, loan and bond investors, private equity firms, servicers and rating agencies, among others. 
  
• Our industry plays a critical role in the financing of office buildings, industrial and warehouse properties, multifamily housing, retail facilities, hotels, and other types of commercial real estate that help form the backbone of the American economy.
  
• CREFC promotes liquidity, transparency, and efficiency in the commercial real estate finance markets. It does this by acting as a legislative and regulatory advocate for the industry, serving a vital role in setting market standards and best practices, providing education for market participants, and publishing the well tracked CREFC Board of Governors Sentiment Index. Our most recent collaborative effort is working with our friends at NCREIF to develop the NCREIF/CREFC Open End Debt Fund Aggregate.
  
• CREFC hosts major industry conferences that bring together market participants from leading commercial real estate finance companies and organizations. Complementing these major conferences are regular After-Work Seminars and regional conferences held throughout the year on an annual basis

About NCREIF

• NCREIF is the leading provider of investment performance indices and transparent data for US commercial properties. Data Contributor Members submit data to NCREIF for inclusion in its various indices and data products. NCREIF is a member-driven, not-for-profit association that improves private real estate investment industry knowledge by providing transparent and consistent data, performance measurement, analytics, standards, and education.
  
• NCREIF serves the institutional real estate investment community as a non-partisan collector, validator, aggregator, converter and disseminator of commercial real estate performance and benchmarking information. Our members include investment managers, investors, consultants, appraisers, academics, researchers and other professionals in the real estate investment management industry.
  
• NCREIF is a data service provider that meets its members' and the investment and academic community's need for high quality, transparent, timely and accurate commercial real estate data, performance measurement and benchmarking indices, investment analysis, reporting standards, research, education and peer group interaction. 

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Congressional Outlook: No Movement on Housing Bill Expected

April 14, 2026

This week the House and Senate return from a two-week district work period with a long to-do list.

• House leaders have not resolved key concerns with the housing bill, with further action not expected on the House’s docket this week. Click here for more background on the single-family rental provisions of the bill. 
• The House is also looking at potentially expelling four members embroiled in various scandals. Two of those members, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) have announced they will resign. 

Why it matters: The Department of Homeland Security is still closed, budget season is well underway, the Foreign Intelligence Act lapses on April 20, and the budget reconciliation process needs to begin if Congress is to meet the President’s June 1 deadline.

• OMB Director Russ Vought will testify in both chambers on the President’s Budget and a number of agencies will appear before committees across the hill to discuss their respective budget requests. 
• In the House, there also could be a vote on a War Powers Resolution to suspend the engagement in Iran, an additional vote to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for temporary protected status, and potentially a measure to expel Congressman Eric Swalwell, Congressman Tony Gonzales, Congressman Cory Mills, and Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick, though Swalwell and Gonzales now intend to resign.
• The Senate will continue to process nominations and restart debate on the SAVE Act.

Housing Bill: House Republicans and Democrats continue to call for changes to the Senate version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644). The limit on large intuitional investors’ purchases of single-family homes for rent remains a point of contention. 

Department of Homeland Security: Before the Easter break, the Senate passed a measure funding DHS, excluding the departments of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

• The Senate plan would fund ICE and CBP through partisan reconciliation for three years. The House rejected that approach and instead passed a continuing resolution before leaving for Easter. 
• After a week (and a public message from President Trump), House leadership switched gears and announced support of the Senate’s plan as the only viable path forward. However, the House Republican Conference pushed back on the turnaround, insisting that reconciliation must begin to ensure CBP and ICE are funded. 
• The Senate-passed package will not be on the House floor this week. 

Budget Reconciliation: Senate Budget Chair Lindsay Graham has started drafting the Budget Reconciliation instructions and has made sure to underscore the need to keep this package narrow to only the DHS priorities. 

• Specifically, from a cost standpoint, their argument is that this would have been funded through the appropriations process, so they do not need to offset the costs as they did with the first package. 
• Any additional policy priorities will be teed up for a third package Republicans hope to pass before the election. 
• Senate Leadership’s goal is to have a budget resolution ready for floor action as soon as next week to spur activity in the House on the DHS funding bill. 

FISA: One of the top priorities this week is reauthorizing FISA before it expires on the 20th. 

• However, House Republicans are split on the issue. Conservatives want amendments that would add warrant requirements, while others are trying to attach the SAVE America Act. 
• Given these dynamics, House Leadership will need heavy buy in from the White House to pull it over the line. 

Contact David McCarthy (dmccarthy@crefc.org) with questions.

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