Servicing

Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Newport Beach, Calif., has reported the issuance of $20 million of trust preferred securities through the newly formed Impac Capital Trust #4.The 30-year securities will bear an interest rate of 8.55% through the dividend payment date in July 2010, and 3.75% above the prevailing three-month London interbank offered rate thereafter, the company said. They are redeemable in whole or in part at the option of Impac on or after July 30, 2010. The mortgage REIT said it intends to use the net proceeds for general corporate purposes. Impac can be found online at http://www.impaccompanies.com.

Class B-3 of GS Mortgage Participation Securities mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2003-3, has been downgraded from BBB to BB by Fitch Ratings.Fitch also upgraded nine classes and affirmed the ratings on 26 classes from 13 GSMPS transactions. The downgrade resulted from higher-than-expected collateral losses and reflects deterioration in the relationship between loss expectations and credit support levels, the rating agency said. "The high delinquency rate (62.7% are 60+ days delinquent) puts this class at a greater risk of future losses," Fitch said. The underlying collateral for the transactions consists of re-performing loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration or guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Washington Mutual Inc., Seattle, has reported earnings of $821 million ($0.92 per share) for the third quarter, up from $674 million ($0.76 per share) a year earlier despite a falloff in net income in its home loan segment.Net income for the home loan segment totaled $165 million in the third quarter, down from $208 million in the second quarter and $273 million a year earlier, the company said. "The decrease from the comparable quarters reflects a decline in noninterest income due to lower gain from mortgage loans driven by a more competitive pricing environment for prime home loans in the secondary market, as well as the increasing cost of hedging the [mortgage servicing rights] as interest rates have risen throughout the year," the company said. "Also contributing to around half of the linked quarter variance were gains recorded in the second quarter related to inter-segment sales of loans during the first half of 2005." Net income for the commercial group segment, including Long Beach Mortgage Co., totaled $201 million in the third quarter, up from $139 million a year earlier, WaMu reported. The company can be found online at http://www.wamu.com.

A program aimed at rehabilitating empty foreclosed homes and offering affordable low-downpayment mortgages and downpayment assistance has been launched by Freddie Mac and several partners in Gwinnett County, Ga.Under the program, Building a Better Block Gwinnett, renovated homes will be marketed and sold through participating local real estate professionals, Freddie Mac said. The properties will be renovated by HomeSteps, Freddie Mac's real-estate-owned sales unit. The partners of the government-sponsored enterprise are The Impact! Group, a Georgia nonprofit community development corporation; Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., a wholesale mortgage lender based in Ocala, Fla.; and Brand Bank. In addition to expanding homeownership opportunities, the initiative is expected to "stabilize communities that have deteriorated due to the high number of foreclosures that Gwinnett County continues to face," said Marina Peed, executive director of The Impact! Group. The organizations can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com, http://www.theimpactgroup.org, and http://www.taylorbean.com.

Fannie Mae has announced new disaster relief flexibility that will allow lenders to base single-family underwriting decisions on a hurricane victim's pre-hurricane credit history.The policy will enable lenders, under certain conditions, to disregard obligations on previously owner-occupied homes when calculating a hurricane victim's debt-to-income ratio, Fannie Mae said. The flexibility will be allowed if: the previous residence is heavily damaged or destroyed and unlikely to be repaired; the lender obtains a property inspection confirming the status of the previous residence; and the borrower demonstrates that he or she is working with the servicer to address the prior mortgage obligation and agrees to apply any property insurance proceeds to the mortgage on the damaged home. "These steps will help more families get into new homes faster while the issues and questions regarding their previous properties are being settled," said Ken Bacon, executive vice president of housing and community development for Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Two classes of Residential Asset Mortgage Products Inc. series 2001-RM2 group I have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings.Class B-I-1 was downgraded from BB to B, and class B-I-2 was downgraded from B to CC. Fitch also upgraded three classes and affirmed the rating on nine others in the transaction. The downgrades were attributed to a deterioration in credit enhancement and the likelihood that class B-I-3 will be fully written down in as little as six months, "at which time the class B-I-2 will begin taking principal writedowns," the rating agency said. The mortgage pool consists of fixed- and adjustable-rate loans to subprime borrowers secured by first liens on one- to four-family residential properties.

Five certificates from four deals issued by Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. in 2002 have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service, and two others have been placed under review for possible downgrade.The downgrades were as follows: series 2002-5, class IV-B-5, from Ba3 to Caa1; series 2002-10, class II-B-3, from Baa3 to B1, and class II-B-5, from Ca to C; series 2002-19, class II-M-1, from Ba2 to B1; and series 2002-26, class III-B, from Ba1 to Ba3. The certificates placed under review for possible downgrade are class I-B-3 of series 2002-9 and class II-B-4 of series 2002-10. Moody's also confirmed the rating of one certificate. The negative rating actions were based on the fact that credit enhancement levels were too low for the current rating level in view of projected losses, Moody's said. The rating agency can be found on the Web at http://www.moodys.com.

The risk of price declines over the next two years has increased in the nation's 50 largest housing markets, according to the latest PMI U.S. Market Risk Index, whose median risk index value rose 11.6% in the third quarter.PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., the Walnut Creek, Calif.-based mortgage insurer that created the index, said the median value increased from 120 to 134, which means the probability of experiencing a home price decline in the next two years has risen from 12.0% to 13.4% in the 50 largest housing markets. "House prices are sticky, so moving to another phase in the real estate cycle can be a slow process," said Mark Milner, chief risk officer of PMI Mortgage Insurance. "But we believe that over the medium to long term, prices will move into better alignment with local economic factors -- in particular, income." According to the index, markets with a greater than 50% chance of price declines over two years are Boston-Quincy (Mass.), at 551; San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos (Calif.), at 536; Nassau-Suffolk (N.Y.), at 532; Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine (Calif.), at 522; and Oakland-Fremont-Hayward (Calif.), at 502. PMI can be found online at http://www.pmigroup.com.

Seven certificates from three Residential Asset Mortgage Products Inc. Trust asset-backed securitization deals have been placed under review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service.The affected classes are as follows: series 2002-RS1, classes M-I-2, M-I-3, and M-II-3; series 2002-RS2, classes M-I-2, M-I-3, and M-II-3; and series 2002-RS3, class M-II-3. The rating actions were based on the weaker-than-expected performance of the mortgage pools and the resulting erosion of credit support, Moody's said. "The overcollateralization in the 2002-RS1 and 2002-RS3 deals is being depleted, and pipeline losses for these deals could cause eventual losses on the most subordinate tranches," the rating agency said. "In addition, the overcollateralization in the 2002-RS2 deal has been fully exhausted and the class M-1-3 certificates have realized losses." The transactions consist of a fixed-rate pool and an adjustable-rate pool made up of mortgages that are not eligible for inclusion in Residential Funding Corp. specific loan program securitization because they do not satisfy the underlying guidelines for those programs. Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

Citing FBI statistics showing mortgage fraud on the rise, Calabasas, Calif.-based Interthinx has announced the integration of its DISSCO fraud detection and prevention system with Fiserv's easyLender mortgage loan origination system.Loans originated in Fiserv's easyLender now can be instantly submitted to DISSCO for automatic screening, with no rekeying necessary. DISSCO (data integrity search and score system) is an electronic fraud-prevention tool that can instantly search hundreds of mortgage-related data fields in a loan record to identify and score misinformation, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies that could indicate fraud. A DISSCO report is issued with step-by-step recommendations on how to respond. Interthinx can be found online at http://www.interthinx.com.