And Why It Matters
by Amy Kame
The NPLA Private Lending Market Report is something this industry has needed for a long time. Private lending has matured into an institutionalized asset class, and it deserves market intelligence that reflects that.
Every month, in partnership with SFR Analytics and Private Lender Law, we are going to publish the data that lenders, brokers, and industry professionals need to understand where this market is, where it is moving, and what it means for their business.
SFR Analytics is one of the leading providers of data and market intelligence for real estate investors and lenders in the country, bringing a level of rigor to the volume and geographic analysis in this report that does not exist anywhere else in private lending.
Private Lender Law is the premier nationwide law firm representing private lenders, operating across transactions and policy every day, and their contribution of rate and point data comes directly from their work on the ground with lenders across the country. Together, they give this report something most industry data does not have: primary sourcing from people who are actually in the market.
In most industries, market data lags by months, sometimes quarters. You are often reading a rearview mirror and trying to make forward decisions from it. Private lending is no different. Having data is one thing. Knowing how to read it, identifying what is a real trend versus what is noise, and connecting the numbers to what is actually happening on the ground is another skill entirely. That is what we are working to build with every issue of this report and why publishing it monthly matters.
The more consistently we track this market, the better we all get at reading it. The NPLA also hosts monthly meetings, where we will discuss this data and the important takeaways for our members.
What is the Data Telling Us
Q1 2026 was the strongest first quarter on record for private lending. Combined RTL and DSCR originations came in just under $30 billion, up approximately 4% year over year. That is a real milestone and a reflection of how far this industry has come.
Eric Abramovich, Chairman of the NPLA Advisory Council and Co-Founder of Roc Capital, framed it well: “The April NPLA Private Lending Report reflects the continued resilience and maturation of the private lending market. NON-QM securitization issuance continues to outpace last year’s record-setting volumes, while demand for RTL securitizations remains exceptionally strong. The limiting factor today is not investor appetite, but the industry’s ability to originate enough high-quality RTL product to meet that demand.”
That last point deserves attention because it reframes the conversation entirely. The capital is there. The question is whether we can meet it with product that is built to institutional standards.
The record headline number is worth noting, but what is happening underneath it is where the real story is. RTL volume surged 13% year over year while DSCR pulled back 8.8%. Capital is rotating toward transitional and value-add deals while buy-and-hold investors wait for cap rates to move. Both products remain well-capitalized, but they are operating in genuinely different environments right now and the pricing data reflects that.
DSCR rates are tightly concentrated, with a 7% median and 90% of loans falling between 6% and 8%. RTL is a different product in almost every way, with rates ranging from 9.5% to 11% and significantly wider dispersion in both rate and points. That spread is not random. It reflects a product where deal complexity, speed, and lender relationships still drive pricing more than any benchmark, and that is an important distinction for anyone operating in both spaces.
The geographic data adds another layer. The fastest-growing private lending markets in Q1 are not the ones most people are watching. York, Pennsylvania is up 53% year over year. Louisville is up 39%. Toledo is up 38%. The Midwest and parts of North Carolina are where real momentum is quietly building, and for brokers and lenders looking for volume, that intelligence matters.
At the same time, Florida is the market that stands out for the wrong reasons. It appears on both the volume decline list and the pre-foreclosure list, and not by a small margin. Nationwide, 1.10% of outstanding private lender loans are actively in pre-foreclosure. Florida accounts for seven of the top ten markets with the highest pre-foreclosure rates. For anyone actively lending or brokering in that state, this data deserves a serious look.
Inside NPLA, these numbers are driving real conversations about the direction of the industry. We are talking about what it means that the capital markets window for RTL is wide open while many mid-sized originators are finding the operational lift to access it significantly higher than they expected. We are talking about underwriting discipline, geographic concentration risk, and the difference between volume growth and sustainable volume growth. These are not abstract discussions. They are the conversations our members are having every day, and our job is to make sure they are having them with the best information available.
That is what this report is built to do. We will keep publishing it monthly, keep deepening the data in partnership with SFR Analytics and Private Lender Law, and keep building something that is genuinely useful to the people who run this industry.
Private lending has earned its seat at the table. The data should reflect that.
The NPLA Private Lending Market Report is published monthly in partnership with SFR Analytics and Private Lender Law. To access the full April 2026 report, visit nplaonline.com.
