Servicing

The ratings on 128 classes from 43 manufactured housing deals by Conseco Finance Corp. (formerly Green Tree Financial Corp.) have been placed on review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service.The actions were prompted by high levels of cumulative repossessions and losses, Moody's said. The repossessions were triggered by the company's suspension of its repossessed refinancing and default transfer-of-equity programs as well as poor industry conditions, the rating agency said. The suspension of the DTOE program "caused repossessions to spike because loans previously eligible for this program had to be reclassified as repossessions," Moody's said. "In addition, since Conseco's exit from the MH origination business, the company has been forced to liquidate repossessed units through wholesale channels rather than retail channels," Moody's said. This led to lower recovery rates and higher loss severities. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

A little less than a third of the homeowners who refinanced their homes in the third quarter got a mortgage at least 5% larger than the original loan, unchanged from the 32% figure recorded in the previous quarter, according to Freddie Mac.The figure was down from 44% in the third quarter of 2002, the government-sponsored enterprise said in its quarterly refinance review. "Over the past three months, mortgage rates began to rise slightly," said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist. "Not surprisingly, we then started to see overall refinancing begin to fall off somewhat from previously high record levels earlier in the year." Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

NovaStar Mortgage Inc., Kansas City, Mo., has announced that it will cease doing business in New Jersey on Nov. 27 until a new state law imposing unlimited assignee liability is amended.NMI said rating agencies have indicated that, as of Nov. 27 (when the New Jersey Home Ownership Security Act of 2002 takes effect), they will not rate structured finance deals that include all forms of cash-out refinancing. The agencies have cited a lack of clarity about potential damages under the new law, NMI said, and the company wants the law's uncapped assignee liability to be limited. NMI noted that its parent company, NovaStar Financial Inc., is a real estate investment trust that invests in mortgage securities backed by mortgage loans originated by NMI. "A large percentage of mortgage securities with collateral in New Jersey will be unrated and, therefore, will not be marketable, resulting in NovaStar's decision to cease doing business in the state," NMI said.

Freddie Mac has decided to become a more active buyer of its newly issued mortgage-backed securities to prop up the pricing of its MBS, which are called participation certificates.The secondary market agency also announced that it plans to sell its holdings of Fannie Mae MBS to fund the purchases. At the beginning of this year, Freddie Mac held $77.0 billion in Fannie Mae MBS, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. "The sale of Fannie Mae securities will facilitate the funding of TBA PC purchases...," according to an information supplement dated Oct. 29. In recent weeks, Freddie Mac signaled that it will lower its guarantee fee to ensure that its bids for whole loans is competitive with Fannie's. This temporary policy is designed to make Freddie more competitive and to improve the pricing of its PCs. "If Freddie Mac's price performance strategies are not successful over the long term, this could have a material adverse effect on the profitability of Freddie Mac's securitization business," the information supplement says.

The common shares of Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund, a new closed-end management investment company, have begun trading on the American Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NRO.Amex said the fund is issuing 29 million common shares at an initial price of $15 per share. The lead manager of the underwriting syndicate is Citigroup Global Markets, and the specialist for the fund is LaBranche & Co. The fund will normally invest at least 90% of its total assets in income-producing common equity securities, preferred securities, securities convertible into equity securities, and nonconvertible equity securities issued by real estate companies, Amex said. Amex can be found online at http://www.amex.com.

Freddie Mac has announced that it is encouraging its servicers to help borrowers affected by the wildfires in Southern California.The company's disaster relief guidelines, which are designed to allow victims to avoid further financial damage, allow affected Freddie Mac borrowers to reduce or suspend mortgage payments for up to one year. The company is also asking servicers to waive assessments of penalties or late fees to victims of the fires, not to report forbearance or delinquencies caused by the fires, and to expedite the release of insurance claims.

The PMI Group, Walnut Creek, Calif., has priced an offering of 5 million shares of common stock at $38.20 per share and a concurrent offering of 12 million 5.875% equity units at $25 per share.The gross proceeds of the stock sale are expected to total $191 million, and the gross proceeds of the equity unit sale are projected at $300 million. PMI said it plans to use the net proceeds of the offerings to fund a portion of its previously announced investment in Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. as well as for general corporate purposes. PMI Group can be found online at http://www.pmigroup.com.

Class B of American Residential HE Loan Trust, series 1998-1, has been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.On the August distribution date, a principal prepayment reduced the pool balance by about $605,000, approximately 11% of the outstanding balance, Fitch reported. The prepayment was applied as a reduction of overcollateralization instead of a principal payment to the rated classes, and as a result, available credit enhancement was depleted and class B realized a loss of $56,320. Fitch said it believes the loss "would not have occurred had the distribution of principal been made in accordance with the terms of the pooling and servicing agreement," adding that the trustee, Deutsche Bank, is reviewing the transaction. The rating agency said class B will be downgraded if it is determined that the payment was made correctly, and affirmed if the payment was made in error.

Two classes of Saxon Asset Securities Trust residential mortgage-backed securities have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings, and three classes have been placed on Rating Watch Negative.The downgrades were as follows: series 1998-3 group 1, class BF-3, from B to CCC; and series 1998-3 group 2, class BV-3, from B to CCC. Class BF-2 of the first deal and class BV-1 of the second deal were placed on Rating Watch Negative, as well as class BF-1 of series 2001-1 group 1, the rating agency said. In addition, the ratings on 30 other classes of Saxon deals were affirmed. Fitch attributed the negative rating actions to loss levels and high delinquencies relative to applicable credit support.

Freddie Mac has completed an initial reorganization of its senior-level positions and says it is forging ahead with plans for product development and securities performance improvements in the wake of firings related to its earnings restatement scandal.The reorganization is designed to bring the government-sponsored enterprise's single-family mortgage funding and participation certificate groups in closer alignment with each other, among other things. Mike May, formerly senior vice president and chief operating officer of single-family operations, will fill a new position as senior vice president for mortgage sourcing, operations, and funding. In his new role he will have direct responsibility for Freddie Mac's relationships with lenders, servicers, and investors in the corporation's mortgage-backed securities and will report directly to Paul Peterson, the corporation's executive vice president and chief operating officer. Several other positions were also affected by the reorganization, and the company says it plans to hire other senior-level executives. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.