Originations

Opteum Financial Services LLC, a mortgage lender based in Paramus, N.J., has announced the acquisition of certain assets of Baytree Lending Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Baytree National Bank and Trust Co. based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Opteum said the acquisition is part of the company's strategic plan to expand its wholesale presence in the Midwest and to service the area's mortgage brokers. "Opteum acquired these assets because of Baytree Lending's outstanding track record of success in the Great Lakes states, complementary alt-A product portfolio, and seasoned staff of dedicated professionals," said Rick Floyd, Opteum's executive vice president and national production manager. Joseph Amoroso, senior vice president of Opteum's Wholesale Eastern Region, will oversee the new Oakbrook Terrace sales and operations center. The purchase was facilitated by Classic Strategies Group, a New York-based consulting firm.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines, Iowa,, has announced that it will roll out by year-end a three-part program to help improve the financial well-being of customers who close on a new nonprime home mortgage loan.The program, Steps to Success, will include education, tools, and banking products "designed to put customers on the path to financial stability," the company said. The educational element of the program will provide modules on establishing credit, budgeting, and other topics via Wells Fargo's bilingual financial literacy program, Hands on Banking/El Futuro En Tus Manos. The program will also provide access to a customer's credit report in an easy-to-read format and offer toll-free numbers at which customers can speak with credit education specialists. The third aspect of the program, banking products, will offer checking, savings, and bill-pay products to "encourage solid, automatic money management," Wells Fargo said. The company can be found online at http://www.wellsfargo.com.

G&L Realty Corp., Beverly Hills, Calif., has announced the redemption of its preferred stock and the filing of articles of dissolution with the state of Maryland.The real estate investment trust said its business will continue after the dissolution under a new limited liability company called G&L Realty Properties LLC, which is owned by its common stockholders, Daniel M. Gottlieb and Steven D. Lebowitz. The REIT reported the redemption of its 10.25% series A preferred stock at $25.16532 per share and its 9.8% series B preferred stock at $25.15806 per share. In connection with the redemption, the company delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

RAIT Investment Trust, a Philadelphia-based commercial real estate lender, is acquiring Taberna Realty Finance Trust, a private Philadelphia CRE lender, for 0.5389 of a RAIT share per Taberna common share.Taberna -- whose chairman and chief executive officer, Daniel G. Cohen, is the son of RAIT chairman and CEO Betsy Z. Cohen -- will become a subsidiary of RAIT. The exchange ratio is based upon the relative book value of the companies, RAIT said. Taberna is a provider of long-term subordinated debt and trust preferred securities financing. RAIT provides structured financing and also acquires real estate for its own account. Ms. Cohen said the combined company would meet the needs of real estate companies for both secured and unsecured structured finance. And Mr. Cohen said they expect to combine Taberna's collateralized debt obligation funding capacity with RAIT's origination platform. The combined company will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange and have total shareholders' equity of about $1.2 billion, with RAIT shareholders owning about 54% of the equity, RAIT reported. Ms. Cohen will be chairman and Mr. Cohen will be CEO of the combined company. The companies, both real estate investment trusts, can be found online at http://www.raitinvestmenttrust.com and http://www.tabernacapital.com.

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition is "extremely troubled" about the mortgage originations market and "problematic brokers," NCRC executive vice president David Berenbaum testified at the Fed hearing in Philadelphia.Mr. Berenbaum said that in 90% of the cases where the group found a problematic situation, there was a problematic broker involved. The NCRC conducted a "mystery shopping" campaign, sending out qualified minority testers and less-qualified white testers. Among the results he shared at the hearing was that 74% of whites were given details regarding fees, while only 31% of minorities were. Whites were offered, on average, 2.6 products, while brokers discussed only 1.3 products with minorities, he reported. Brokers met for an average of 38.6 minutes with the white testers, and just 27.4 minutes with minority testers.

"The structure of today's mortgage market does not serve Latinos well," a housing policy analyst for the National Council of La Raza told a Federal Reserve Board hearing June 9.Speaking at the Fed hearing in Philadelphia, Janice Bowdler said Latino consumers are more likely to choose a provider by relationship than by price. The most popular products in the Latino community are payment-option mortgages, 100% financing, and stated-income loans from subprime lenders, she said, adding that even when prime lenders advertise to Latinos, they are marketing those products and not the conventional products available from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. There are products available, but there is no incentive for originators to use them, she said. Ms. Bowdler concluded her remarks by noting that market intermediaries such as mortgage brokers do play an important role, but she said improved accountability standards are needed to protect consumers.

Class K of Banc of America Large Loans Inc.'s commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2004-BBA4, has been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.In addition, five classes from the transaction were upgraded and the ratings on 11 other classes were affirmed. The watchlist placement was attributed to the continuing decline in performance of three loans representing 17% of the balance of the deal as of May: the Fifteen Group Multifamily Portfolio (representing 12.5% of the pool), the Heritage Square I and II loan (2.6%), and the Arapaho Business Park (2.0%). Fitch can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Three classes of Merrill Lynch Mortgage Investors Inc. Office Portfolio Trust commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-HRPT, have been placed on review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service.The affected securities are classes F, G, and H. The actions were attributed to deterioration in the performance of Bridgeport Square (17.4% of the pool balance) and Lakewood on the Park (9.0%). Both properties, which are located in Austin, Texas, have experienced decreases in occupancy and rents. The transaction is secured by cross-defaulted and cross-collateralized first mortgage loans on a portfolio of six office properties containing approximately 2.2 million square feet. Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

Capital Alliance Income Ltd., a residential mortgage real estate investment trust based in San Francisco, has reported receiving notification from the American Stock Exchange that it is not in compliance with Amex's continued listing standards.The warning letter from Amex gives the REIT until June 16 to file Form 10-QSB for the three months ended March 31 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Richard Wrensen, CAIT's chief executive officer, said the reason for the delay in the filing is the additional time required to reclassify and report its taxable subsidiary, Capital Alliance Funding Corp., as an asset held for disposal at year-end 2005.

First Guardian Financial Corp., a New York-based provider of commercial real estate financing, has reported the adoption of a board resolution to reduce the company's authorized shares of common stock by 320 million shares.The reduction will lower the number of First Guardian's authorized common shares to 200 million. "The company has taken this share restructuring to increase the value of our share price, as we believe that the company at this point is extremely undervalued and does not reflect the true value/market cap," said company president Abraham Rosenman. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.guardianfinancialcorp.com.

MILA, Mountlake Terrace, Wash., is introducing daily online Web training for its proprietary decisioning and loan management technology, AccessPoint.Along with the training, MILA has recently introduced co-browsing, which allows a broker to invite a MILA associate into his system to help drive the process in real time. When combined with communication tools such as live chat and e-mail, co-browsing will empower MILA's brokers to move loans even more efficiently through AccessPoint, the company said. AccessPoint has been designed as a platform that brokers and small mortgage bankers can use to manage their entire business, from marketing, product selection, and rate locks to fraud prevention, settlement service fulfillment, and document preparation. MILA can be found on the Web at http://www.mila.com.

H&R Block Inc., Kansas City, Mo., has reported earnings of $490.4 million ($1.49 per share) for its fiscal year ended April 30, down from $623.9 million ($1.88 per share) for the prior year.The company reported net income of $587.5 million ($1.77 per share) in its fourth fiscal quarter, down from $614.9 million ($1.88 per share) a year earlier. Earnings for the quarter and the year were hurt by an after-tax charge of $6.4 million ($0.02 per share) for a restructuring of the company's mortgage operations. Block had total after-tax charges to its annual earnings of $49.1 million ($0.15 per share), which included other items such as a legal settlement in its tax business. Revenues in its mortgage services business (Option One Mortgage Corp. and H&R Block Mortgage) totaled $304.1 million for the fourth quarter, down 20% from that of the previous year, and $1.2 billion for the fiscal year, similar to that of fiscal 2005. Pretax income fell from $496.1 million in fiscal 2005 to $321.6 million in fiscal 2006 and from $163.1 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005 to $73.5 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell from 6.67% to 6.62% over the seven-day period ended June 8, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate fell from 6.26% to 6.23%, the average rate for five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages fell from 6.26% to 6.20%, and the average rate for one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs declined from 5.68% to 5.63%, Freddie Mac reported. Fees and points averaged 0.5 of a point for fixed-rate mortgages and hybrid ARMs and 0.8 of a point for one-year ARMs. "Mortgage rates are down a little this week on news of disappointing job growth in May coupled with downward revisions for the previous two months," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "The slight drop in long-term rates reflects a cautiously optimistic outlook in the market that core inflation remains contained." A year ago, the average 30-year and 15-year fixed rates were 5.56% and 5.14%, respectively, and the average one-year ARM rate was 4.21%, Freddie Mac said. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

FirstService Corp., a Toronto-based property services firm, has acquired a majority stake in Cohen Financial, Chicago, for an undisclosed amount.Jack Cohen, chief executive officer of Cohen Financial, and his senior management team will hold on to the remaining equity interest in the firm, FirstService said. Cohen Financial is a commercial mortgage banker and servicer, and also provides advisory services in the real estate area. The firm originated over $5 billion in commercial-real-estate-related loans last year, according to FirstService, and has a $5 billion commercial-mortgage-related servicing portfolio. "Cohen Financial's strong reputation and commercial mortgage and real estate investment banking expertise represent a tremendous addition to our growing commercial real estate operations and another opportunity to leverage our extensive broker network while offering a broader portfolio of services and knowledge to our clients," said Doug Frye, president and CEO of Colliers International, a company affiliated with FirstService. The companies can be found online at http://www.firstservice.com and http://www.cohenfinancial.com.

Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, has announced an agreement under which Wells Fargo Bank NA will acquire the assets of Reilly Mortgage Group, a privately owned multifamily real estate finance firm based in McLean, Va.The terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Subject to regulatory approval, the business will become part of the Specialized Financial Services Group of Wells Fargo Wholesale Banking. "Reilly Mortgage will significantly broaden Wells Fargo's ability to serve the needs of multifamily housing properties and give us a presence in a number of new markets across the country," said Ed Blakey, head of Wells Fargo's Commercial Mortgage Group. Wells Fargo said Reilly Mortgage is one of the largest commercial mortgage finance companies in the United States, originating more than $1.5 billion in new loans a year, and was the first mortgage banker approved under Fannie Mae's Delegated and Underwriting Servicing Program in 1988.

Citing a strong recent performance in same-store net operating income, Fitch Ratings has revised its rating outlook for Apartment Investment and Management Co. from Negative to Stable.Fitch affirmed its ratings on AIMCO's preferred stock and its $850 million bank credit facility. AIMCO is an equity real estate investment trust based in Denver. Fitch can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Washington Mutual Inc., Seattle, is being sued in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., by three former employees alleging that the mortgage banker violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying them the minimum wage and overtime.The three plaintiffs, Dewone Westerfield of Grand Rapids, Mich., Charlotte Machado of Trussville, Ala., and Patricia Kemesies of East Islip, N.Y., worked at different locations, but all maintain that they worked in excess of 40 hours a week with no overtime. The plaintiffs allege that, if the loans they handled were not approved, they received no pay for the long hours they worked, and that this practice violates the minimum wage law, according to the attorneys that filed the suit, Nichols Kaster & Anderson PLLP of Minneapolis and Outten & Golden LLP of New York. Alan Gulick, a spokesman for WaMu, said the company has not yet seen the lawsuit. "However, we believe our compensation practices are fair and ethical, and we will vigorously defend our company against the allegations made," he said. Nichols Kaster & Anderson has a website, http://www.overtimecases.com, that lists 10 other active cases against nine mortgage lenders.

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, fell from 541.9 to 534.4 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended June 2, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications decreased 11.7% on the week and were down 28.0% from the level recorded a year earlier. The Purchase Index crept up from 395.5 to 395.6 on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the Refinance Index declined from 1409.0 to 1356.0. Refinancings represented 34.2% of total applications, down from 34.9% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 29.4%, the MBA said. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased from 6.66% to 6.60%, and points (including the origination fee) increased from 1.03 to 1.19 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the association reported.

AMB Property Corp., San Francisco, has announced an early renewal of its unsecured revolving line of credit and an increase in the credit line from $500 million to $550 million.The four-year facility includes a multicurrency component under which up to $550 million can be drawn in U.S. dollars, pounds sterling, euros, or yen, the company said. The pricing for both components is based on the credit rating of AMB's long-term debt. It is currently 42.5 basis points over the applicable index of the London interbank offered rate, compared with 60 bps for the prior facility. AMB, an owner and operator of industrial real estate, can be found online at http://www.amb.com.

The issuance of real estate investment trust and commercial mortgage-backed securities has surpassed the $1 trillion mark, according to data compiled by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association.In credit markets, the outstanding volume of CMBS reached $682.7 billion at the end of 2005, including securities collateralized by loans on multifamily properties and other nonresidential properties. In addition, equity REITs had issued another $82.9 billion of unsecured debt in the form of notes and bonds. In equity markets, the market value of equity REITs at the end of 2005 stood at $318.2 billion, including $301.5 billion of common shares and another $16.7 billion of preferred stock, according to NAREIT. The associations can be found online at http://www.nareit.com and http://www.cmbs.org.