Originations

Starwood Property Trust, Greenwich, Conn., so far in the second quarter has completed 21 mortgage purchase or lending transactions for a total of $769 million. This brings the real estate investment trust's portfolio to over $2.4 billion.

A court-appointed judicial hearing officer who previously had said e-mails sent between New York Insurance Department officials showed bias regarding the restructuring of bond insurer MBIA Insurance Corp. last week reversed his decision.

Bloodcurdling numbers of distressed residential mortgage assets are bad enough. But nonperforming commercial mortgages have also ballooned out, to more than $200 billion of a niche that is only one-third the size of residential.

Shortly after Cornerstone Residential Management company settled a class-action lawsuit claiming discrimination against families with minor children, the housing developer was hit by another lawsuit alleging it has violated Fair Housing Act protections for people with disabilities for decades.

The No. 4 producer on our list, Bradley Cohen of EagleBank, Potomac, Md., had a very simple reason for what drove his business success in 2010—the need to make his own mortgage payment.

Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan believes cash purchases of homes will continue at "quite high levels" for the rest of this year as investors and even some homebuyers bypass the traditional mortgage process.

Radian Guaranty Inc., Philadelphia, will accept Fannie Mae Desktop Underwriter Approve/Eligible and Freddie Mac Loan Prospector Accept/Eligible loans for mortgage insurance without the need for a separate underwriting decision by the company starting on July 11. This is just one of a series of guideline changes the company is making.

A new Office of Comptroller of the Currency survey will give home builders and Realtors more reason to complain that banks are continuing to tightened their underwriting standards and choke off credit to homebuyers.

A report from the National Association of Home Builders found that a decrease in loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration set to take effect on Oct. 1 would have a negative impact for the housing market.

Amid a lackluster housing market, additional downgrades of military base projects and budgetary uncertainty, adjustment was the theme Thursday at The Bond Buyer's sixth annual military housing privatization conference.

Barclays Capital has appointed Larry Kravetz and Spencer Kagan to its CMBS sector to expand its CMBS origination business.

No one could have predicted the speed of recovery in the commercial real estate space, said panelists speaking at the American Securitization Forum’s 2011 annual meeting.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act case whose outcome could shield banks and other lenders from litigation under a wide range of federal and state laws.

Robert J. Shiller, a Yale University economist and the namesake of the closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price indexes, has been called overly pessimistic for predicting home prices could fall another 25%.

I was recently working with one of my San Francisco Bay Area executive coaching clients, a president in a Silicon Valley high tech company. We discussed how culture change begins with getting clarity on desired results.

Ellie Mae and Lenders Processing Services were the only mortgage-related stocks bucking the negative trend on Wall St. Thursday morning, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, once down 235 points on the day, was still off 156 at 1 p.m.

WASHINGTON—The cost of being a Federal Housing Administration-approved lender is making it difficult for many small lenders to retain their ability to table-fund FHA loans.

Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. will pay $200 million in restitution to subprime and mortgage-related bond fund investors to settle multi-regulator enforcement proceedings related to improper marketing and insufficient disclosures.

Many commercial real estate investors are aggressively buying properties as they believe the industry's overall fundamentals are stabilizing and in certain sectors and regions, even improving, the second quarter PWC Real Estate Investor Survey found.

New home sales fell 2% in May after a 6% increase in April as sales continue to be stuck in a low range.