Elon Musk sounds the alarm on real estate, warning a spike in defaults on mortgages and commercial loans could hammer banks

• Elon Musk has sounded the alarm on mortgages and commercial real estate.

• The Tesla chief warned that banks could be hit by a surge in defaults and lower asset prices.

• Higher interest rates, depressed occupancy levels, and a looming recession threaten loan portfolios.

The turmoil in the banking sector could spread to the housing and commercial real estate markets, Elon Musk has warned.

"This is by far the most serious looming issue," he tweeted on Saturday. "Mortgages too."

The Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX CEO was responding to The Kobeissi Letter, after it outlined that a record $2.5 trillion in commercial real estate debt will mature over the next five years.

Many borrowers could default on those loans in the face of sharply higher interest rates, depressed occupancy levels, tighter financing, and pressure on asset prices as recession fears grow. Around 70% of CRE debt in the US is held by smaller banks, exposing them to major losses if those defaults occur, the markets commentary said.

In the same vein, Genevieve Roch-Decter tweeted a few days earlier that the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was "just a blip" — and there was a "much larger timebomb" in the form of CRE loans on banks' balance sheets.