Origination

MHI Hospitality Corp., a real estate investment trust based in Williamsburg, Va., has entered into an amendment to its credit agreement with Branch Banking & Trust Co., which fixes the interest rate spread for variable Libor-based interest rate loans at 4% and sets a Libor floor at 0.75%. Furthermore, the facility has become nonrevolving. The agreement also eliminates MHI's ability to borrow any further funds under the facility or re-borrow previously repaid funds. There is also an option to extend the maturity date to May 8, 2012 if certain valuation and other criteria are met. MHI will be required to make mandatory prepayments based on excess cash flow and if it raises equity within certain parameters. The agreement modifies the methodology used to value the company's existing hotel properties and increases the percentage of a hotel property's value available for compliance purposes, except for the Tampa property.

Included in the sale of three retail banking branches from Integra Bank NA, Evansville, Ind., to United Community Bank, Lawrenceburg, Ind., was approximately $10.7 million in commercial and residential mortgage loans that were originated in other Integra offices. There were also $35 million of branch loans sold in the transaction, which involved offices located in Milan, Osgood and Versailles, Ind. The loans were purchased at par value. United Community assumed $53.3 million of deposits for a 4.5% premium. The sale increased Integra's tier I and total risk-based capital ratios by approximately 32 basis points and the tier 1 leverage ratio increased by approximately 22 basis points.

With residential production falling sharply the past few years, it might seem as though loan officer recruitment would be the last thing on the mind of mortgage bankers. But surprisingly, one of lenders' biggest challenges these days is finding a few good men and women to join the sales force. The number of mortgage jobs has fallen by about half, from a peak of just over 500,000 in February 2006, to about 248,000 in April. And fundings are expected to drop by more than a third from last year's volume, to about $1.2 trillion this year. But with so many players having quit the business, opportunity exists for those that are left to pick up market share. A number of lenders say they would like to hire loan officers-if only they could find them. "The industry is shrinking at a pace faster than the loan volume is shrinking," said William Giambrone, chief executive of Platinum Home Mortgage Corp., Rolling Meadows, Ill. "If the participants are going away faster than the loan volume is going away," it creates opportunity, he said. Jesse Gnazzo, an assistant vice president and area sales manager at McCue Mortgage, in New Britain, Conn., said recruitment has always been a challenge but that the difficulties are different today than during the housing boom. A couple of years ago, he said, the risk was that you could lure somebody with a huge signing bonus but then the recruit would not produce enough loan volume. Today, the problem is an aging sales force, he said. Gnazzo and other lenders said that they are having difficulty recruiting experienced loan officers because such professionals are more cautious these days about switching jobs and worried about the potential instability at some companies.

Fitch Solutions' index of credit default swaps linked to subprime residential mortgage-backed securities shows subprime prices rose to a high not seen since December 2008 in the latest month. The index jumped 7.6% month-to-month to 9.37. Managing director Thomas Aubrey said subprime asset quality is not only stable but also significantly improved in contrast to historic lows at the beginning of 2010. Month-to-month, the 2004 and 2006 vintages rose 10% and 14%, respectively; the 2005 vintage inched up 2% and the 2007 vintage increased 12%. However, the particularly troubled 2007 vintage's increase brings it to a point that leaves it almost flat compared to the start of the year. The 2004 and 2006 vintages, in contrast, have seen 27% and 57% gains since the start of the year, respectively. Sixty- and 90-day delinquencies have improved across all vintages and three- and six-month constant default rates have dropped. However, the three-month constant prepayment rate has slightly improved, suggesting there could be a slowdown in the price index's upward trend. A peak in prepayments could signal the departure of higher quality borrowers from the pool, leaving the pools with a lower credit quality profile as a result of adverse selection.

The former head of the Federal Housing Administration questioned the ability of the agency to continue its role as the bulwark of the mortgage market for much longer without an infusion of cash and staff. Brian Montgomery, who was FHA commissioner in the last Bush Administration, stopped short of predicting the agency's antiquated technology systems would eventually crash under the weight of insuring almost one-third of all residential loans. But he told the National Association of Real Estate Editors' annual conference in Austin that the agency wouldn't be able to keep pace with its lender-partners unless its computer systems are brought up to date and it can add much-needed new hires. Montgomery told NAREE that the FHA is running on a patchwork of 37 computer systems, "some of which are over 30-years-old." He also pointed out that while Fannie Mae has grown by something like 1,000 employees since it was taken into receivership by the government and still has more than 500 vacancies, the FHA is "still the same size it was" when he headed the agency and it had only a 3% market share. The former commissioner said at worst, the FHA and Ginnie Mae should be allowed to keep a portion of the revenues they generate so they can upgrade themselves. "Even if they kept only $100-$200 million of the $6.3 billion in receipts they turn over to the Treasury, they could update their systems and add staff," he said. But ideally, he added, the two should be allowed to become separate, autonomous government agencies.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on, and pass legislation this week giving the Federal Housing Administration more flexibility in adjusting mortgage insurance premiums and tools to rebuild its capital reserves. The FHA reform bill (H.R. 5072) also strengthens the agency's hand in getting lenders to indemnify the agency against bad loans and to terminate lenders with excessive early defaults. The House Financial Services Committee approved the bill by a voice vote in April after rejecting (by a 52-12 vote) an amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., to increase the FHA's 3.5% minimum downpayment to 5%. Getting the FHA reform bill through the Senate could be tougher. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has tried several times to increase the FHA minimum downpayment to 5%. He likely will try again. The Senate is not expected to take up the FHA reform bill until after the July 4th recess, according to sources. If passed in its current form, H.R. 5072 would allow FHA to reduce its 2.25% upfront premium to 1% and raise its 55 basis point annual premium to 85 bps on single-family mortgages with loan-to-value ratios up to 95% and to 90 bps for LTVs above 95%. FHA officials estimate this change would increase the agency's reserve fund by $300 million a month.

Citigroup's plan to shift bad loans to a new division from its U.S. consumer finance business will make the remaining network profitable, said Mary McDowell, CEO of the CitiFinancial unit. Bloomberg reported that the "streamlined" branch network will serve 1.6 million customers and manage $18 billion of loans and other receivables, or about 70% of the current total. McDowell told employees on a June 1 conference call that the network will be profitable when excluding losses on $8 billion of receivables being moved to a new CitiFinancial division specializing in loan modifications, she said. Citigroup is carving up CitiFinancial to attract buyers 17 months after CEO Vikram Pandit tagged it for sale. While results for the Baltimore unit are not disclosed, it is part of Citigroup's local consumer lending group, which had a loss of $10.5 billion last year. Citigroup said June 1 that CitiFinancial also will close 330 U.S. branches and cut 500 to 600 jobs under the strategy. The unit has its roots in Commercial Credit, a consumer finance unit that Citi inherited when it merged with Travelers.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, which took a bath on the sale of its custom designed and environmentally friendly Washington headquarters, has finally moved into new space a few blocks away. At press time the trade group was in the process of completing the move to 1717 Rhode Island Avenue from L Street, allowing employees to work from remote locations on Friday. The new headquarters will officially open on Monday. Earlier this year CoStar Group, a provider of commercial real estate data, bought MBA's 10-story headquarters for $41.3 million. The negotiated sale price was well below the $79 million the trade group paid to construct the building from scratch. The lender on the deal was PNC Bank.

Subprime may have fanned the fire that brought the housing market to its knees, but it wasn't the root cause, a researcher who closely follows the new home sector in 81 metropolitan statistical areas told a gathering of real estate writers. Housing's downfall began in markets with strong growth restrictions, and stumbled from there, Michael Inselmann, president of Metrostudy, Houston, said at the NAREE conference in Austin, Tex. "It didn't start with subprime," Inselmann said. "Subprime added gasoline to the fire, but it was builders' running up against the inability to meet demand" in places like California, Las Vegas and Florida that started the worst nosedive in housing since the 1930s. Inselmann, whose company has its fingers on nearly 70% of the new home market, called artificial, government-invoked growth limits "the unindicted co-conspirator" of the downturn, and said that if governments want to slow growth in their communities, they should tell their local chambers of commerce not to create prosperity. The researcher also told reporters to beware of national housing statistics. "Real estate is a local market," he said. "Every single one is different. There is no such thing as a national market." National sales figures and prices are nothing more than "a roll-up" of local markets, he said, but they are only a statistical number. Metrostudy's database covers housing starts, absorption rates and house and lot inventories.

The South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority next week expects to price $100 million of homeownership revenue bonds in its first issuance under the Treasury Department's New Issue Bond Program. According to a report by the Bond Buyer, the deal includes $60 million of tax-exempt bonds the HFA will convert from short-term, taxable debt bought by the Treasury at the end of 2009. Like other issuers participating in the NIBP, South Carolina needs to convert the debt by the end of this year if it wants to use proceeds to purchase mortgage-backed securities. The deal also includes $40 million of new money tax-exempt bonds that the South Carolina HFA is required to issue to match the Treasury purchase. The bonds will be offered to retail investors Monday and to institutional investors Tuesday. Goldman, Sachs & Co. is lead underwriter, with Barclays Capital and Citigroup Securities. The Bond Buyer is an affiliate of National Mortgage News.