What leverage and rates look like on Massachusetts commercial loans in 2026

Two numbers do most of the work in a commercial loan conversation: how much of the price a lender will finance, and what the money costs. Recent closing data for Greater Boston gives a usable baseline for both.

Across 112 commercial closings in a recent 90-day stretch, the community banks and credit unions doing most of the lending were at 65% to 70% loan-to-value, with rates roughly between 6.73% and 7.02% (LoanBase, mid-2026). National banks on larger transactions add scale — into nine figures — with about 1% origination.

What 65–70% LTV means in practice

On a $2 million building, 70% leverage is a $1.4 million loan and $600,000 of equity before closing costs. If you were planning on 80%, Massachusetts commercial lending in 2026 mostly is not offering it on standard terms — and a quote promising it deserves scrutiny of everything else in the term sheet: rate, recourse, covenants, and what happens at the reset.

Remember the constraint runs two ways. The loan must also clear the lender's debt service coverage test on the building's actual income, and at today's rates that test — not the LTV cap — is often what sizes the loan. A building with thin income supports less debt than the LTV math suggests.

What moves you inside the range

Property type, town, tenancy, and the lender's current concentration all move the quote. A bank heavy in retail this year prices retail defensively; a bank trying to grow multifamily stretches for it. This is why two identical borrowers get different answers from the same bank six months apart — and why the useful work is knowing which lenders are leaning in right now.

That is what we do: one application, matched against a tracked file of what Massachusetts banks, credit unions, and private lenders are actually writing, so you compare real term sheets instead of collecting polite declines.

Source: LoanBase, Top 15 CRE Lenders in Boston (trailing 90 days, mid-2026).