Brokers Eye Switch to Commercial Mortgages as Residential Cools

"We're definitely seeing a cross-over, especially as it relates to small-balance commercial loans," said Clay Reese, senior vice president of EverBank Commercial Lending, Jacksonville, who counted "20 or so" commercial lenders among the dozens of exhibitors at the convention's big trade show.

If there is a shift from residential to commercial, it is in at least one sense a return to their roots for mortgage brokers, who began moving from the commercial sector to residential financing about a decade ago when the housing market began to sag and office, retail and industrial construction started to pick up steam.