Balloon Maturity

A balloon maturity is the large principal balance that comes due when a loan’s term ends before its amortization schedule finishes. A $5M loan on 25-year amortization with a 5-year term still owes roughly $4.4M at maturity — a balloon the borrower must refinance, extend, or pay off in cash. The structure exists because lenders want to reprice and re-underwrite periodically rather than commit to one rate for decades.

The balloon is where CRE risk concentrates. A property can perform flawlessly for the entire term and still hit trouble at maturity if rates have risen, values have fallen, or its lender has lost appetite. That is why experienced borrowers start refinance conversations 9–12 months ahead, and why the smartest question isn’t "who gave me my last loan?" but "who is actively lending on my property type right now?"

This site exists largely for that moment: the live index shows which banks are growing their CRE books this quarter, county records show who is actually closing loans, and each profile’s trend table shows whether a lender is in expansion or run-off mode.