Origination

Freddie Mac has engaged for the first time two rating agencies to provide conventional public ratings in conjunction with its “K” certificates as part of its first multifamily deal of this type in 2011.

The average 30-year mortgage rate tracked by Freddie Mac continued to fall this week, dropping to 4.71%, but it still is 25 basis points above where it was before its dramatic run-up in December.

American Assets Trust Inc., a San Diego-based company that is in the process of becoming a real estate investment trust, has priced its initial public offering of 27.5 million shares of common stock at $20.50 per share. The shares began trading this morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “AAT.” As of 11 a.m., the price had risen to $21.71 per share.

The National Association of Home Builders is projecting a 16% increase in multi-family housing starts this year. But the 133,000 units apartment developers are expected to produce will not be nearly enough to meet demand.

Recovery in the housing market, and the economy at large, is dependent on what the government does — and doesn't do — to influence the recuperation, according to a panel of economic observers at a real estate conference in New York.

The housing market will start its long awaited recovery this year, two key economists predicted at the National Association of Home Builders convention in Orlando. But because starts and sales are at such a low point, they warned, even a big percentage jump in the two important indices will not result in much of an improvement.

The debate on regulating how ISPs manage online use has largely been focused on the online activities of consumers, but mortgage executives and their technology vendors believe the regulation of Internet access could affect the daily operations of the lending industry as well, leaving smaller players with fewer financial resources at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to loan processing speed and costs.

Did you forget about the $8,000 tax credit for military and certain federal employees? A little-known (and mostly forgotten) provision of the Home Buyer Tax Credit bill that became effective on Nov. 6, 2009, is that certain military personnel and Foreign Service employees have an extra year to purchase a home and qualify for the tax credit.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is seeking to overturn a recent Department of Labor interpretation that requires mortgage lenders to pay their loan officers overtime pay.

J.I. Kislak, Inc., Miami Lakes, said it inked a deal to buy three distressed multifamily properties from Ocean Bank of Miami. No purchase price was disclosed.