Winner: Walker & Dunlop's HUD portfolio buy

Why: The purchase of the Oppenheimer Holdings subsidiary’s $3.8B HUD portfolio made Walker & Dunlop the largest HUD servicer in the nation.

The HUD servicing portfolio is made up of 480 loans—361 of which have an unpaid principal balance of $2.7B and are secured by multifamily properties. Borrowers are disbursed throughout 43 states, DC and the US Virgin Islands.

Walker & Dunlop financed the deal with cash on hand, and company execs project it will bring in $6.5M in annual servicing revenue. The company’s overall HUD portfolio, including its already-existing clients, is projected to exceed $9.3B at the end of Q2 ’16, making it the largest servicer of HUD multifamily and healthcare loans in the US.

Honorable Mentions:

• Co-founder of Crescent Real Estate Equities John Goff established a $4B investment fund this month to be used specifically for real estate assets. The GP Invitation Fund has already committed to six new projects totaling $400M.

• Though not exactly commercial real estate, we can’t brush over Microsoft dishing out $26.2B to buy business professionals' favorite social network site, LinkedIn. After the deal was announced, LinkedIn’s shares jumped 48% in pre-market trading and Microsoft’s opened down 5%.

This is a monthly series of articles recognizing the best deals in commercial real estate. Please send any nominations for a local Deal of the Month here.