Servicing

A stock index of multifamily companies has hit a record high and outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index in 2003, according to the National Association of Home Builders.The NAHB-created multifamily stock index showed a gain of 20%, compared with a 15% gain by the S&P 500 (with dividends reinvested). "Investors are looking at multifamily companies as good, long-term investments and, despite some weakness in the rental market over the past two years, these stocks continue to perform well," said NAHB economist Elliot Eisenberg. The NAHB stock index includes 24 real estate investment trusts and four other publicly traded companies that derive 50% of their revenues from rental properties. Mr. Eisenberg created the index two years ago. The NAHB can be found online at http://www.nahb.com.

Freddie Mac has announced the deadlines for submitting stockholder proposals and director nominations to be included in the proxy statement for its annual stockholders' meeting and for qualifying to introduce proposals and nominations from the floor.To be considered for inclusion in the proxy statement, stockholder proposals must be submitted in writing to Freddie Mac and received by Jan. 30, the government-sponsored enterprise said. The deadline for receipt of written proposals and nominations to be introduced from the floor is Feb. 8. Freddie Mac said it expects to provide an annual report for 2002 at the stockholders' meeting, which it said will be held in the first quarter. Submissions should be sent to Corporate Secretary, Freddie Mac, 8200 Jones Branch Drive MS 200, McLean, Va. 22102. Procedural requirements for submissions can be found on Freddie Mac's website at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Peoples Bancorp, Marietta, Ohio, has reported the recent sale of approximately $55 million of mortgage-backed securities as part of a restructuring of its assets that will result in a pretax loss of $1.9 million in the fourth quarter.Peoples said it will reinvest the proceeds of the sales into other MBS that are expected to improve the yield on the approximately $53 million in net reinvestment by about 100 basis points. That is expected to increase interest income by about $530,000 in 2004, or about $0.03 per share after tax, the company said. "This asset restructuring complements our recent prepayment of select long-term liabilities," said Robert E. Evans, chairman and chief executive officer of Peoples. "While these actions lower current-year earnings, we believe it positions Peoples for long-term success." The company can be found on the Web at http://www.peoplesbancorp.com.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas has announced the appointment of seven new members to its advisory council.The new members are: Mary Ann Chavez, executive director of the Socorro County [N.M.] Housing Authority; Helena Cunningham, president of the Louisiana Housing Finance Authority; Mac Dodson, president of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority; Phillip Eide, vice president of the Enterprise Corp of the Delta in Jackson, Miss.; Shari Flynn, executive director of the Lubbock [Texas] Housing Finance Corp.; Wiley Hopkins, executive director of the Housing Authority of Travis County in Austin, Texas; and Sharron Welsh, executive director of the Santa Fe [N.M.] Housing Trust. The council consists of 15 representatives from state, community, and nonprofit organizations that advise the FHLBank's board of directors on affordable housing and economic development. The FHLBank can be found online at http://www.fhlb.com.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded six subordinate classes of securities from WMC Mortgage Loan Pass-Through Certificates series issued between 1997 and 2000.Moody's rating action stems from the subprime collateral's "weaker than anticipated performance" which led to downgrades in some classes. The downgraded classes are: the class M-2 (Baa2 from A2) and class B (B1 from Baa3) certificates in series 1997-2; the class M-2 (Baa1 from A2) and class B (Ba1 from Baa3) certificates in series 1998-1; and class M-2 (Baa1 from A2) and the class B (Ba1 from Baa3) certificates in series 1998-A. Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

American Home Mortgage Investment, Melville, N.Y., has filed a universal shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the issuance of up to $500 million in equity and debt securities.Michael Strauss, chairman and CEO, AHMI, said in a statement released by the real estate investment trust that "the purpose of this shelf registration statement is to provide American Home with additional financial liquidity and flexibility to access the capital markets on a timely and cost effective basis. Once the registration statement is effective, depending on market conditions, we will have the ability to periodically raise capital for financing mortgage portfolio investments, increasing the size of our lending operations and for other general corporate purposes." The registration was not yet effective as of the morning of Dec. 24, according to the REIT.

American Business Financial Services Inc., Bala Cynwyd, Pa., has announced a joint agreement with the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia that ends a civil inquiry by the U.S. attorney and will result in modifications to the company's forbearance policy.ABFS said the inquiry had focused on its policy of requiring a "deed in lieu of foreclosure" as part of its forbearance arrangements with seriously delinquent customers. Under the joint agreement, it will no longer require such deeds in cases where the real estate securing the loan is the borrower's primary residence. It will also return unrecorded deeds in lieu of foreclosure to consumers who provided them under forbearance arrangements, ABFS said. In addition, the company said it will -- under the agreement, and as a demonstration of its "commitment to fair lending practices" -- contribute $80,000 over 13 months to one or more housing counseling groups that are approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and that assist consumers in states where ABFS makes loans. The company's website address is http://www.abfsonline.com.

Meanwhile, Freddie Mac's loan purchases totaled $44.5 billion in November, down 42% from the October total and 50% from September's.Purchase commitments rebounded from $3.7 billion in October to $7.6 billion in November, but this barometer of future activity is way off the $18.4 billion in commitments made in September. The slowdown in mortgage financing and secondary-market activity has also slowed portfolio growth at the giant mortgage company. "Given current market conditions, the company expects retained portfolio growth for the fourth quarter to be relatively flat," Freddie said. Freddie also issued a correction in its monthly volume summary stating that it had previously misclassified $303 million in securities backed by Ginnie Mae collateral as Freddie Mac securities rather than as non-Freddie Mac mortgage-related securities. The impact of the correction on "related annualized growth rates and liquidation rates were no more than 0.1 percentage point and 0.3 percentage points," Freddie Mac reported.

Two classes of Countrywide asset-backed securities issues have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.Class BV of CWABS series 2000-2, group 2, and class BV3 of CWABS series 2000-2, group 3, were placed on Rating Watch Negative. In addition, Fitch affirmed the ratings on seven other classes in the two securitizations and on eight classes from two other deals. Fitch attributed the negative rating actions to high delinquencies and the deterioration of credit enhancement.

C-BASS, New York, has completed a real estate mortgage investment conduit deal backed by approximately $435 million of residential mortgages.The REMIC -- C-BASS Mortgage Loan Asset-Backed Certificates, Series 2003-CB6 -- consists of about $414.6 million of publicly offered certificates underwritten by RBS Greenwich Capital, GMAC RFC Securities, and Blaylock & Partners, the company said. The servicer on the deal is Litton Loan Servicing LP, a C-BASS subsidiary. C-BASS specializes in acquiring, servicing, and securitizing "credit-sensitive" residential mortgages. The company can be found online at http://www.c-bass.com.