Originations

Classes D, E, and F of Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Corp.'s mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2000-FL1, have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.Fitch also placed two classes in the deal on Rating Watch Evolving and affirmed the rating on one other class. Fitch attributed the Rating Watch actions to uncertainty about the ability of the remaining four loans in the pool to pay off at maturity. "The largest loan (52.5%) is collateralized by an office property in Metairie, La., that suffered damage from Hurricane Katrina," the rating agency said. "The other three loans (47.5%) have all seen declines in occupancy and net cash flow since issuance."

Housing affordability in California stood at 14% in August, down from 16% in July and 18% a year earlier, according to the California Association of Realtors.The Housing Affordability Index indicates the percentage of households that can afford to buy a median-priced home in California, which cost $568,890 in August. The minimum household income needed to buy a median-priced home was $133,800, up from $110,980 a year earlier, CAR said. (The figures are based on an average effective mortgage rate of 5.87%, assuming a 20% downpayment.) CAR can be found on the Web at http://www.car.org.

Aimbridge Home Loans, a Denver-based provider of mortgages for credit union members, has announced a strategic partnership with United Federal Mortgage, Rockville, Md., under which Aimbridge will change its name to UFM and offer credit unions a wider range of products.Aimbridge said UFM is able to handle large loan volume, provide competitive pricing, and offer additional loan options and flexibility that only larger lenders could previously provide to credit unions. "To build relationships and provide benefits to larger credit unions, we needed to offer a more complete range of loan products and provide financing in all 50 states," said Donna Price, director of credit union affinity for United Federal Mortgage. "Being backed by a federally chartered organization such as UFM allows us to offer better pricing and services that we previously could not have." The companies can be found online at http://www.aimbridge.com and http://www.unitedfederalmortgage.com.

Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., has announced that its primary subsidiary, Countrywide Home Loans, has purchased two buildings near the Tampa International Airport to expand its corporate offices into Florida.Countrywide said it expects to make a capital investment of $20 million to $25 million, including the purchase of the building shells and property for more than $15.9 million. Patrick Benton, the company's managing director of corporate real estate administration, said the move was part of Countrywide's growth strategy to search for new office locations in business-friendly states. "In addition to the government support of targeted business development in Florida, we were attracted by the proximity of these two buildings to the airport, allowing for the convenient handling of documents that will come to this location from Countrywide offices around the country," Mr. Benton said. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Laureate Capital LLC, a Charlotte, N.C.-based commercial mortgage banking subsidiary of Branch Banking and Trust Co., has reported the acquisition of the $325 million servicing portfolio and loan origination platform of Atlanta-based Wilson & Nolan Southeast Inc.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Laureate said the acquisition will expand its operations in Atlanta and provide a new presence in Jacksonville, Fla. Wilson & Nolan founder Geoff Nolan will join Laureate, but co-founder Berke Wilson will remain with Wilson & Nolan and maintain the firm's management and leasing components, according to Laureate. Laureate's Jacksonville office will be led by Taylor Williams, Wilson & Nolan's senior commercial mortgage producer, while its combined Atlanta operations will be headed by Laureate senior vice president Dennis Edmiston. Laureate's ultimate parent company, BB&T Corp., headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., can be found online at http://www.bbandt.com

CDP Capital Financing, a subsidiary of Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, is acquiring Criimi Mae in a transaction valued at about $328 million.Criimi Mae, a commercial mortgage investor and servicer, has announced that a subsidiary of CDP Capital will merge into Criimi Mae, and Criimi Mae's common shareholders will be paid $20 in cash. "Through a competitive bidding process, the board of directors has helped our shareholders realize value for their shares at a significant premium to the current trading price," said Barry S. Blattman, chairman and chief executive officer of Criimi Mae. If approved by Criimi Mae shareholders, the merger is expected to go through in the first quarter of 2006. The merger agreement allows Criimi Mae to solicit other acquisition proposals. If the agreement is terminated, Criimi Mae will pay a fee of up to $2 million for reimbursement of CDP's expenses. After January 2006, there is also a breakup fee of $8 million associated with the termination of the merger agreement. The companies can be found online at http://www.cdpcapital.com and http://www.criimimaeinc.com.

Mortgage lenders added 3,000 full-time employees to their payrolls in August as home sales remained strong and refinancing picked up.Employment in the mortgage banker/broker sector rose from 522,200 in July to 525,200 in August, according to the Oct. 7 job report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (There is a one-month lag in BLS reporting of mortgage-sector employment data. The September data will be released Nov. 4.) Since August 2004, employment in the mortgage industry has grown by 9.3% with the addition of 44,300 new hires. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy lost 35,000 jobs in September in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, raising the unemployment rate to 5.1%, up from 4.9% in August. The effects of Hurricane Rita should show up in October's job report. The BLS can be found online at http://stats.bls.gov.

Zacks.com, the online unit of Zacks Investment Research Inc., Chicago, has placed New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif., on its #5 Rank List -- Stocks to Sell Now.On Sept. 23, New Century cut its earnings guidance by approximately $1 per share, to $7.25-$7.75, citing downward pressures on margins and possible significant losses related to Hurricane Katrina. Zacks noted that nine of the 11 analysts that cover New Century have cut their forecasts, dropping the consensus estimate from $8.24 per share to $7.25 per share. Zacks also added that New Century has not yet quantified its Katrina exposure. In the Sept. 23 release, New Century said the revised estimate did not take into account such possible losses.

Moody's Investors Service and Torto Wheaton Research have teamed up with Trepp LLC, a provider of commercial mortgage-backed securities and commercial mortgage analytics, to make the rating agency's commercial mortgage metrics available to CMBS investors.Trepp will use the metrics, a quantitative tool for assessing credit risk associated with commercial mortgage loans, to produce annual and cumulative probabilities of default for CMBS under various scenarios, as well as other input such as loss given default, Moody's said. "CMM will provide CMBS investors with the same industry-leading analytics now being used by major banks and life insurance companies to analyze risk in their commercial loan portfolios," said Tad Philipp, managing director for CMBS with Moody's. The companies can be found online at http://www.moodys.com, http://www.tortowheatonresearch.com, and http://www.trepp.com.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose from 5.91% to 5.98% over the seven-day period ended Oct. 6, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate increased from 5.48% to 5.54%, the average rate for five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages rose from 5.44% to 5.48%, and the average rate for one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs climbed from 4.68% to 4.77%. Fees and points averaged 0.5 of a point for fixed-rate mortgages and 0.6 of a point for ARMs. "Mortgage rates have been rising for the last four weeks on inflation jitters caused in part by extended high energy costs," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "Still, we need more concrete data to predict the direction of the national economy, including mortgage rates." A year ago, the average 30-year and 15-year fixed rates were 5.82% and 5.24%, respectively, and the average one-year ARM rate was 4.08%, Freddie Mac said. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Sales contracts on existing single-family homes reached a record level in August, according to a National Association of Realtors survey, countering perceptions of a slowdown in the housing market.The NAR index of pending sales rose 3.2% to a record 129.1 in August, up from 125.1 in July. The August index reading is up 4.7% from that of the same month in 2004. "Home sales remain at remarkable levels," NAR chief economist David Lereah said, although some of the sales may not close because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "Even so, national sales should stay close to record over the next two months," he said. The NAR considers its pending sales index to be a leading indicator of sales that will close in the next one or two months. The association can be found online at http://www.realtor.org.

Citibank has launched a new program that provides financial products and services, including mortgages and real estate assistance, exclusively for members of the American Dental Association.Citi Connection for Dentists offers discounted rates and waived lending fees on mortgages as well as free real estate consultation through Home Solutions from CitiMortgage, according to Citibank. The program also offers preferred rates and special advantages on personal and business credit cards, auto loans, student loans, and lines of credit for ADA members, their staff, and their families. The program can be found online at http://www.citiconnectionfordentists.com.

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, fell from 721.2 to 713.5 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended Sept. 30, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications decreased 1.2% on the week and were down 1.8% from the level recorded a year earlier. The Purchase Index fell from 483.1 to 473.8 on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the Refinance Index climbed from 2106.6 to 2107.4. The four-week moving average for the Purchase Index fell 1.3%, from 499.0 to 492.7, and the comparable average for the Refinance Index fell 2.8%, from 2254.0 to 2191.6. Refinancings represented 44.5% of total applications, up from 43.9% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 29.8%, the MBA said. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased from 5.85% to 5.94%, and points (including the origination fee) increased from 1.19 to 1.21 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association has announced the implementation of the "principal limit lock," which it describes as a consumer protection that freezes the "expected interest rate" on federally insured reverse mortgages for up to 60 days from the date of application.The expected interest rate is used to calculate the amount of funds available from a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, and is a "critical factor" in determining how much equity an elderly homeowner is eligible to receive from a HECM, according to NRMLA. The association said it has developed a model disclosure that explains how the principal limit lock works. Before the advent of this feature, borrowers received less money if rates increased between the time of application and the time of loan closing, NRMLA said. "Interest rate fluctuations over the past several years have benefited some reverse mortgage borrowers, but hurt others," said NRMLA president Peter Bell. "This principal limit lock protects borrowers in a rising rate environment, yet lets them benefit if rate are lower at the time of closing." The association can be found online at http://www.reversemortgage.org.

Current practices for providing flood insurance may not fully address risk for commercial mortgage-backed securities investors, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service prompted by Hurricane Katrina.Katrina has brought the issue into focus, since a large part of the storm-related damage was caused by flooding. "In contrast to wind storm coverage, flood insurance is much harder to obtain from private insurance carriers and, when obtained, it is saddled with material quantitative and qualitative limitations," said Moody's analyst Daniel Rubock. "The first $500,000 layer of flood insurance for commercial owners usually is obtainable only under FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program." This $500,000 coverage, which is for the actual cash value of an asset rather than its replacement cost, is the maximum available coverage, according to the rating agency. And most CMBS loan documents allow for flood insurance coverage at replacement cost or the $500,000 NFIP maximum (whichever is lower), which Moody's believes could be a problem. However, Moody's said it expects that "even if the probabilities of flood damage are stressed, there will be little effect on investment-grade ratings." Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp., Freehold, N.J., has been added to the S&P REIT Composite Index, according to the real estate investment trust.Monmouth is a REIT that specializes in net-leased industrial properties. It was added to the S&P index after the close of trading Sept. 30.

L. J. Melody & Co., a Houston-based real estate investment banking company, has announced that it's changing its name to CBRE | Melody to reflect its relationship with its parent company, CB Richard Ellis."The company name change is a part of the integration of the Melody platform and CBRE's Investment Properties operations into CBRE Capital Markets," said Brian Stoffers, executive managing director and chief operating officer of CBRE | Melody and president of CBRE Capital Markets. The company said another benefit of the name change is that it will give Melody more name recognition in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world where the CBRE brand name is well known. The company can be found online at http://www.cbremelody.com.

For the first time since April, the Eleventh Federal Home Loan District Cost of Funds Index has recorded a double-digit increase.The index for August stood at 2.870%, up slightly over 11 basis points from its level in July, as compiled by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. The index is nearly a full percentage point higher than it was for August 2004. COFI is a weighted average of what the member savings institutions of the FHLBank pay for funds (including deposits) used to originate mortgages. In turn, a number of institutions, especially on the West Coast, use COFI to index adjustable-rate mortgage loans. By using a weighted average, COFI is believed to lag the market by three to six months and provide a cushion in situations where there might be payment shock for borrowers.

The private mortgage insurance business recovered from a one-month slump in July to have its second-best month of the year so far in August.The members of the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America booked primary new insurance written of $22.2 billion, up 29% from $17.1 billion in July. The only month better for the industry was June, when it wrote $23.1 billion. Primary new insurance is split into two categories, traditional and bulk, and in the traditional category, August was the best month of the year so far, with volume of just under $16 billion. It was also better for the industry than the same month last year, when MICA members did $15.4 billion in traditional insurance and $3.2 billion in bulk. Application volume for August reached 156,899, also the second-best level of the year, up from 130,661 in July and 153,696 in August 2004. New pool risk written totaled $45.3 million, up from $22.1 million in July. The cure/default ratio for August was 78.7%, with 33,360 cures and 42,407 defaults. July's cure/default ratio of 69.9% was the worst of the year so far. MICA can be found online at http://www.micanews.com.

Brandywine Realty Trust, a Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based office real estate investment trust, is acquiring Dallas-based Prentiss Properties in a transaction valued at about $3.3 billion.As part of the transaction, Prudential Real Estate Investors is acquiring a portfolio valued at about $753 million from Prentiss Properties, Brandywine reported. The consideration for the merger, including the portfolio sale to PREI, consists of $2.2 billion in cash, the assumption of Prentiss Properties debt, and about 35.5 million of Brandywine common shares and units. Prentiss common shareholders will receive $21.50 per share in cash and 0.690 of a Brandywine common share for each Prentiss share. After the merger is completed, Brandywine will own and manage a portfolio of 49 million square feet of office space, according to the REIT. Michael V. Prentiss, chairman of Prentiss, and Thomas F. August, president and chief executive officer of the REIT, are expected to join the Brandywine board of trustees. Several Prentiss executives are expected to come on board as well.