Originations

Trading in the stock of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. finally resumed Tuesday afternoon, but not before plunging almost 90% to just over $1 a share.The publicly traded prime/alternative-A real estate investment trust revealed that it could not fund up to $850 million in loan commitments because its warehouse backers are demanding "substantial unpaid margin calls." AHM also said it has retained Milestone Advisors and Lazard to explore "strategic options." On Monday, MortgageWire broke the news that IndyMac Bancorp of California had talked to AHM about buying its retail network but that attorneys for IndyMac balked at the deal, believing that a possible bankruptcy filing by AHM would pose too many legal hurdles. Based in Melville, N.Y., AHM is the nation's 10th-largest residential funder, according to the Quarterly Data Report. Over the past year its stock has traded as high as $36.40.

By a 45-23 vote, the House Financial Services Committee has approved a housing trust fund bill that could generate over $600 million in grants a year for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing for very-low-income families.The government-sponsored enterprises -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- and the Federal Housing Administration would provide the bulk of the trust funds. The House committee has approved separate bills that require the GSEs and the FHA to make annual contributions to the fund. The Department of Housing and Urban Development would be in charge of awarding and distributing the grants to the states, cities, and Indian reservations, which would have to put up some matching funds. The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., estimates that the trust fund could increase the stock of affordable housing by 1.5 million units before the legislation sunsets after 10 years. "The growing shortage of affordable housing is one of the most serious social and economic problems facing our country," Rep. Frank said.

FlexPoint Funding, a hard-money lender based in Irvine, Calif., has shut its wholesale division, industry sources have told MortgageWire.At deadline time, the company and its officials, including senior executive Dan Rawitch, could not be reached for comment. Executives familiar with the firm said FlexPoint also had a retail presence, but little is known about its production make-up. Mr. Rawitch, a former executive at the GE-owned WMC Mortgage, Burbank, Calif., joined FlexPoint earlier this year, one source said. At its peak, FlexPoint was funding between $600 million and $700 million a year.

The commercial mortgage-backed securities primary servicer rating of Washington Mutual Bank has been lowered from CPS2-minus to CPS3-plus by Fitch Ratings.WaMu Bank's master servicer rating of CMS3 and its special servicer rating of CSS3 were affirmed, the rating agency said. The downgrade was attributed to the company's high employee and management turnover rates. Among other factors cited were higher-than-average real estate tax penalties in 2006 and the "relatively limited" CMBS servicing experience of the bank's senior management team. Fitch rates commercial mortgage servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating. Fitch can be found on the Web at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Standard & Poor's has announced that Investors Real Estate Trust will replace Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. in the S&P REIT Composite Index after the close of trading on Aug. 3.IRET, a Minot, N.D.-based REIT engaged in the ownership and operation of residential, commercial, office, and retail properties in the United States, will replace Crescent because the latter is scheduled to be acquired by Morgan Stanley Real Estate on or about that date, S&P reported. S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Health Care Property Investors Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Long Beach, Calif., has announced that it is changing its name to HCP Inc., effective on or about Sept. 7.The REIT said its portfolio has grown from two acute care hospitals and 22 skilled nursing homes in 1985 to assets of approximately $13 billion (upon the closing of the acquisition of Slough Estates USA Inc.) concentrated in private-pay senior housing facilities, life science campuses, and medical office buildings. "The new name recognizes the evolution of the company's real estate portfolio and operating platforms," the REIT said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.hcpi.com.

Nearly one in five Realtors has sold a home to an international client in the past year, according to the National Association of Realtors.Most international homebuyers purchased single-family homes or townhomes, but 22% bought condominiums/apartments, compared with only 12% of U.S. homebuyers, the association reported in its 2007 NAR Profile of International Home Buying Activity. The study also found that 28% of foreign buyers bought their houses with cash, compared with 8% of U.S. homebuyers. The median price of homes bought by international buyers was $299,500, compared with the U.S. median of $221,900 for the same period, the NAR reported. The association can be found online at http://www.realtor.org.

The National Association of Counties has passed a resolution applauding the contribution of seller-assisted downpayment assistance programs to helping hundreds of thousands of low- to moderate-income families become homeowners.The NAC announced the resolution during its 72nd Annual Conference and Exposition in Richmond, Va. "Housing affordability remains a critical problem in many jurisdictions across the country," said Commissioner Grady Prestage, chair of the Community & Economic Development Steering Committee, which sponsored the resolution. "Eliminating downpayment assistance programs would remove a critical tool for creating homeownership and wealth-building opportunities for low- to middle-income families." In May, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a rule that would ban DPA obtained from a gift, loan, or other payment provided by any donor, including a nonprofit group, individual, or homeseller.

CU Members Mortgage, Fort Worth, Texas, has announced an exclusive relationship with the Association of Vermont Credit Unions to provide mortgage origination and servicing to the AVCU's 30 member credit unions."Our goal is to provide the support credit unions need to increase their market share of home loans, and CU Members Mortgage has the capabilities and experience to work with credit unions to increase homeownership among their members while creating new income for the credit unions' financial viability," said Bryan Kent, vice president/LSC executive at the AVCU. The mortgage company can be found on the Web at http://www.cumembers.com, and the association can be found at http://www.vermontcreditunions.com.

Stewart Title Ltd., which underwrites title insurance transactions in Australia and Europe for Stewart Information Services Corp., Houston, has announced that it is opening for business in New Zealand.The company's office will be located in Auckland. "There has been a need for some time now to provide lender title insurance for Stewart's Australian customers also operating in New Zealand," said Anna Macdonald, general manager of Stewart Title Ltd., Australia. "The establishment of the New Zealand branch enables Stewart's Australian branch to service lenders doing business in both Australia and New Zealand, as well as to introduce title insurance to the New Zealand market." The company has named Megan Fraser as business development manager for New Zealand. She has nearly six years of experience working in Stewart's Canadian division. In New Zealand, Stewart will offer residential and commercial lender and purchaser title insurance.

IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Pasadena, Calif., has reported net earnings of $44.6 million ($0.60 per share) for the second quarter, down 57% from $104.7 million ($1.49 per share) a year earlier.IndyMac's mortgage loan production totaled $22.5 billion in the second quarter, down 12% from that of the first quarter, the company said. Michael Perry, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, said IndyMac's 8.6% return on equity was below its 10% forecast because the forecast had included a gain from the sale/leaseback of a commercial property housing one of its mortgage loan centers. The sale resulted in a $60 million pretax gain, but $24 million will be recorded in the third quarter and the remainder will be deferred, he said. "While our ROE for the quarter is below our historical performance, it must be considered solid given current conditions in the mortgage and housing markets," Mr. Perry said. "Once again, the balance provided by our hybrid thrift/mortgage banking model protected us in this environment. Our mortgage production business, while down slightly from last quarter, had earnings of $38 million and a solid 21% ROE, despite a high level of costs, which had been anticipated." IndyMac can be found online at http://www.indymacbank.com.

Residential Capital LLC, the parent company of GMAC Residential, has incurred a loss of $254 million for the second quarter, an improvement from a $910 million loss in the first quarter but far below ResCap's performance a year earlier, when it recorded net income of $548 million.GMAC Financial Services, the New York-based parent company of ResCap, reported net income of $293 million for the quarter and noted that it represents a big improvement from the $305 million net loss recorded in the first quarter, stemming largely from ResCap's much-reduced loss. "Although severe illiquidity in the nonprime mortgage market placed increasing pressure on asset valuations, aggressive measures undertaken to reduce ResCap's nonprime exposure rendered the company less vulnerable in the second quarter to continued weakness in the market," GMAC Financial said. Those measures included a dramatic reduction in nonprime originations, which plunged from $3.3 billion in the first quarter to $700 million in the second quarter, the company reported. GMAC Financial can be found online at http://www.gmacfs.com.

House prices declined at a 2.8% annual rate in May, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller national housing index, which included some positive news for the first time since prices starting dropping 18 months ago."At the national level, declines in annual home prices are showing no signs of a slowdown or turnaround," said Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC. Nevertheless, prices in eight of the 20 metropolitan areas surveyed showed positive monthly growth rates, compared with only one or two in the late winter and early spring. "We need a few more months of data, however, to determine if this is the beginning of a national turnaround, since the national trend is still at a sharp deceleration," Mr. Shiller said. The S&P/CS HPI declined at a 2.1% annual rate in April. S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

For the second day in a row, the stock of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., Melville, N.Y., did not trade as rumors began to circulate that the REIT is contemplating filing for bankruptcy protection.As of MortgageWire's deadline, AHM's spokeswoman could not be reached for comment. Industry executives have told MW that IndyMac Bancorp, Pasadena, Calif., has broken off talks with AHM about buying all or part of the troubled lender's retail platform. On Friday, AHM's stock closed at $10.47 but fell to just over $6 a share in after-hours trading when the nondepository revealed that it would delay a dividend payment after being hit with significant margin calls from its warehouse lenders. AHM, a real estate investment trust, is the nation's 10th-largest residential funder, according to the Quarterly Data Report. Since Friday the company has not issued any clarifying statements on its situation. It has not filed any reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission since July 2. The mortgage REIT can be found online at http://www.americanhm.com.

The two mortgage insurance firms that control C-BASS have written down the value of their investment in the New York-based specialty servicer by more than $1 billion combined, according to company statements.Meanwhile, in trading on Tuesday the share price of the two MIs -- MGIC Investment Corp., Milwaukee, and Radian Group, Philadelphia -- had fallen by 9% and 10%, respectively. MGIC and Radian, which are merging, control C-BASS, which in turn owns Houston-based Litton Loan Servicing, a $48 billion servicer of subprime loans. MGIC had valued its share of C-BASS at $516 million, Radian, $518 million. In separate statements, MGIC said its investment in C-BASS "could be" fully impaired, while Radian said its investment is "materially impaired." On Monday night the two MIs said C-BASS has been the subject of "unprecedented" margin calls. The mortgage insurers can be found online at http://www.mgic.com and http://www.radianmi.com.

New York-based C-BASS LLC, which controls the nation's 10th-largest subprime servicer, has been hit by what its parent companies are calling an "unprecedented amount" of margin calls.According to the Quarterly Data Report, the C-BASS-owned Litton Loan Servicing, Houston, owns the right to service $48 billion in mostly subprime loans. C-BASS is controlled by two publicly traded mortgage insurance firms: MGIC Investment Corp. and Radian Group Inc., which are in the process of merging. (See related story below.) In a statement issued July 31, the two MIs said C-BASS "remains confident in the overall credit quality of its portfolio and the performance of its highly rated servicing subsidiary Litton Loan Servicing." Citing a "tumultuous time" in the subprime market, the two MIs said C-BASS was asked to meet $290 million worth of margin calls during the first half. (At the beginning of the year it had $302 million in liquidity.) C-BASS -- Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization LLC -- can be found online at http://www.c-bass.com.

Standard & Poor's has announced that Hersha Hospitality Trust will replace Spirit Finance Corp. in the S&P REIT Composite Index after the close of trading on July 31.Hersha, a Philadelphia-based REIT engaged in the ownership and operation of midscale limited-service hotels in the eastern United States, will replace Spirit because the latter is scheduled to be acquired by a consortium led by Macquarie Bank on or about that date, S&P reported. S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

UDR Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Richmond, Va., has announced an increase in its credit facility from $500 million to $600 million and extended its maturity to July 26, 2012.The REIT said the facility may be increased to $750 million under certain circumstances. Based on the company's current credit ratings, the facility carries an interest rate of 47.5 basis points over the London interbank offered rate, a 10-bp reduction from that of the previous facility. Wachovia Capital Markets LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. arranged the facility, which was syndicated to 17 banks. UDR, a multifamily REIT, can be found online at http://www.udr.com.

LSF5 Accredited Investments LLC, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Lone Star Fund V (U.S.) LP, has announced an extension of its tender offer for all outstanding common shares of San Diego-based Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. until midnight on Aug. 14.Lone Star said that, as anticipated, it had not obtained all the needed state regulatory approvals as of July 27. At that time, it had received preliminary tenders (subject to withdrawal) representing approximately 8.21 million of Accredited's outstanding shares, or about 32.7%, Lone Star reported. The tender offer is being conducted in connection with the expected merger of a Lone Star subsidiary with Accredited.

Integra Software Systems, a provider of mortgage origination software based in Brentwood, Tenn., has acquired the assets of Financial Compliance Corp. for an undisclosed amount."We are finding that more lenders, especially banks, want one software partner to handle their overall lending processing needs," said Integra president Jerry Pratt. Tim Bartek, senior vice president of sales-marketing for Integra, said the acquisition "is going to be a tremendous, immediate complement to our Destiny mortgage loan origination system, which is among the most robust in the industry. Now, we can also address lenders' other software needs -- beyond residential mortgages." Integra said it will immediately begin marketing FCC's WinBanker and WinDeposit as standalone products, and plans eventually to integrate key features into the Destiny software. The company also announced that Jim Williams, formerly president of FCC, has joined Integra, bringing over 30 years of experience in software development for banks and other lenders.