Origination

Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc., Dallas, has restructured and extended the maturity date on a $203.4 million mortgage loan that was originally due this month. According to the company's third quarter 10-Q filing, the loan is secured by five hotels; the lender was not disclosed.

ViewPoint Financial Group, Plano, Texas, has agreed to purchase Highlands Bancshares, and its subsidiary bank, First National Bank of Jacksboro, in a stock deal valued at $71 million.

House Republican leaders have included a hike in GSE guarantee fees in their bill to extend a payroll tax holiday that is similar to a Senate version, which means seller/servicers could be facing higher g-fees next year.

BNC National Bank's Doug Brendel is shoulder deep in all of the challenges facing mortgage lenders in the new post-crisis market - expansive compliance requirements, new disclosures, compressed loan processing times, a growing mountain of documentation, and the need for staff buy-in to necessary changes in familiar work processes.

The drop over 3Q11 of commercial and multifamily loans is a credit positive for CMBS, according to Standard & Poor's in a note released Friday.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had so far limited its complaint process to just credit cards. But CFPB began taking complaints related to home mortgages as of Dec. 1.

Radian Guaranty Inc.'s delinquent loan inventory declined by a scant 256 loans between October and November as new notices of defaults outpaced cures by nearly 1,800 loans.

One failing common among many small business owners (and in this universe we can include owners of mortgage brokerage shops and small mortgage banking shops) is that they do not run their business like it is a business.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is among those moving forward with expanding correspondent origination plans as larger players cut back, as a Securities and Exchange Commission filing released last month shows.

More than 90% of the nearly 49,000 condominium units built in South Florida since the real estate boom began in 2003 have been sold. But that still leaves about 4,700 units to go.