Mortgage & Realty Trust Reports 1st-Quarter Loss

Mortgage & Realty Trust reported a fiscal first-quarter loss of $5.20 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $2.47 million.

The real estate investment trust, which has executive offices in Burbank and Elkins Park, Pa., blamed the latest loss on continued weakness in the commercial real estate market. In the latest quarter, the trust set aside $5 million for real estate loan and investment losses, compared with a $3-million provision a year earlier.

Mortgage & Realty has reduced its debt, however, to about $342 million from $403.5 million a year earlier.