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American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., a mortgage real estate investment trust based in Melville, N.Y., has announced a public offering of 10 million shares of common stock.The company also announced that its board has declared two special dividends in lieu of one regular dividend for the first quarter due to the timing of the offering. The first dividend, $0.36 per share, will be payable March 10 to stockholders of record on Feb. 25, and the second, $0.19 per share, will be payable April 14 to stockholders of record on March 31, the company said. The lead managers of the stock offering are Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. and Lehman Brothers Inc. The underwriters have been granted an option to buy up to 1.5 million additional shares to cover any overallotments.

Affordable Residential Communities Inc., Denver, has priced an initial public offering of common stock at $19 per share and of 8.25% series A cumulative redeemable preferred stock at $25 per share.Of the common stock, 22.25 million shares are being offered by the company and approximately 2.26 million shares are being offered by stockholders, ARC said. The common stock was scheduled to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange Feb. 12 under the symbol "ARC," and the preferred stock was expected to be listed within 30 days under the symbol "ARC Pr A." The joint book-running managers of both stock offerings are Citigroup Global Markets and Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith.

Two classes of CIT Home Equity Loan Trust series 1998-1 have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service.Class B-2 was downgraded from Ba2 to Ba3, and class B-3 was downgraded from B2 to C. Moody's attributed the downgrades to weaker-than-expected performance of the underlying collateral. "The class B-3 certificates have taken writedowns, and future losses based on pipeline delinquencies are expected to further erode this class," the rating agency said. Moody's said the structure of the deal "differs significantly" from that of other senior/subordinate pass-through home equity deals in that "excess spread is not captured to cover losses; the subordinate certificates provide the only form of credit support for the senior certificates." Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

In an effort to prop up the sagging manufactured housing sector, Fannie Mae has reinstituted a 5% down, 30-year loan program for factory-built houses with nine lenders on a negotiated basis.The big secondary-market institution also pledged to work with the nine companies to transform the manufactured housing market by developing processes and procedures that lower the risk associated with mortgages on houses that are assembled in a factory, trucked to a building site, and fixed to the land. "This is both more and better," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., in praising the initiative. Fannie Mae invests in manufactured housing loans, but stepped back last year because of problems in the business. Shipments have fallen to their lowest level in decades, and many manufacturers and retailers have exited the market or declared bankruptcy, largely because of high delinquencies and loan losses. The number of repossessed and foreclosed manufactured homes also is said to be at record high levels. The nine lenders -- AgFirst Farm Credit Bank, Flagstar Bank, GMAC Manufactured Housing, Huntington Mortgage Group, Origen Financial, RBC Mortgage, 21st Mortgage, Vanderbilt Mortgage, and Washington Mutual -- have all demonstrated the "high levels of expertise necessary to understand the property, titling, appraisal, and servicing issues associated with manufactured homes," Fannie Mae said.

Fannie Mae has announced that it will not issue Callable Benchmark Notes in February.The company had previously announced that it might not issue Callable Benchmark Notes in up to four months this year. It reiterated that policy, noting that it plans to issue Callable Benchmark Notes on at least eight of its 12 defined monthly pricing dates.

Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., Newport Beach, Calif., has priced an offering of 5.0 million shares of its common stock at $19.50 per share.The offering produced estimated net proceeds of $92.5 million, Impac said. It was led by UBS Investment Bank; Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co.; Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP; and JMP Securities. The company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to 750,000 additional shares to cover any overallotments. Impac, a mortgage real estate investment trust, can be found online at http://www.impaccompanies.com.

Ten classes in five CWMBS (IndyMac) Inc. mortgage pass-through deals have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings, and one other class was placed on Rating Watch Negative.The downgrades were as follows: series 1999-E (RAST 1999-A5), class B4, placed on Rating Watch Negative, and class B5, from CCC to C; series 1999-I (RAST 1999-A9), class B4, from CCC to C, and class B5, from C to D; series 2000-A (RAST 2000-A1), class B3, from BBB to BB-minus and removed from Rating Watch Negative, class B4, from CCC to C, and class B5, from C to D; series 2000-C (RAST 2000-A3), class B3, from BBB to BB, and class B4, from CCC to C; and series 2000-G (RAST 2000-A7), class B3, from BB to B, and class B4, from CC to C. In addition, the ratings on 29 classes in eight transactions were affirmed. The rating agency said the actions stemmed from loss levels and high delinquencies relative to the applicable credit support. Fitch can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Prepayment rates for agency mortgage-backed securities slowed across the board in the January reporting period, producing "the flattest refinancing curve we have observed since early in 2001," according to the Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary.Speeds of Fannie Mae MBS were "marginally slower in the massive 5.0% and 5.5% coupons," whereas coupons of 6.0% and higher recorded declines of 17%-20% (representing decreases in constant prepayment rates of 5-10 CPR), said Bear Stearns analysts Dale Westhoff and Bruce Kramer. "After today's report, we find all 6.0% issues now paying in the low to mid-20 CPR range and all higher coupons paying in the 35 to 45 CPR range," the analysts said. "Many of these issues are now more than 40 CPR below their peak levels from last summer." Noting the recent drop in mortgage rates, the Bear Stearns analysts predicted that speeds will rise in the February and March reporting periods, but that "we expect this mini-refinancing event to be short-lived and centered primarily in new 5.5% and 6.0% issues." Bear Stearns can be found online at http://www.bearstearns.com.

Mortgage lenders reduced their payrolls in December by 5,800 full-time employees, according to the latest government report.The Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday show that employment in the mortgage banker/broker sector fell from 444,700 in November to 438,900 in December. Lenders have been trimming their payrolls since September, when the demand for refinancings fell dramatically. Meanwhile, the BLS report shows that the economy created 112,000 jobs in January, and the December jobs creation number was revised upward from 1,000 to 16,000. The unemployment rate fell slightly, to 5.6%. (There is a one-month lag in the mortgage employment data due to changes made by the Labor Department last year in its employment report.) The BLS can be found online at http://stats.bls.gov.

Class B3 of CWMBS (Countrywide Home Loans Inc.) mortgage pass-through certificates series 2001-10 (ALT 2001-6) has been downgraded from B to CCC by Fitch Ratings.The rating agency also affirmed the ratings on four other classes in the transaction. Fitch attributed the downgrade to loss levels and high delinquencies relative to the applicable credit support.