Originations

Fannie Mae has announced a three-year agreement under which it will purchase at least 25,000 mortgage loans to first-time homebuyers generated by brokers with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.Fannie Mae said the pact strengthens its partnership with NAHREP and focuses on increasing first-time homeownership in underserved, minority, and immigrant communities. The arrangement is part of Fannie Mae's American Dream Commitment, under which it has pledged to create 6 million first-time homebuyers (including 1.8 million from minority families) by 2014.

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, rose slightly, from 724.7 to 724.8, on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended Oct. 1, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications were virtually unchanged on the week and were down 11.8% from the level of a year earlier. The Purchase Index fell from 469.1 to 459.0 on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the Refinance Index climbed from 2211.1 to 2270.8. Refinancings represented 47.1% of total applications, up from 45.9% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 33.9%, the MBA said. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose from 5.64% to 5.78%, and points (including the origination fee) increased from 1.35 to 1.36, for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

First Franklin Financial Corp., San Jose, Calif., has announced a commitment to sponsor at least eight homebuilding worksites in 2004 and 2005 in partnership with Habitat for Humanity International.The local Habitat for Humanity affiliate for each worksite will receive financial and volunteer support from First Franklin's local sales offices, the company said. First Franklin said the commitment represents its second consecutive year of support for Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for low-income families through homeowner and volunteer participation and then sells the houses to the homeowner family at no profit.

Genworth Financial Inc., Richmond, Va., has announced the launch of "Tu Casa Ahora" ("Your Home Now"), an online Spanish-language program designed to help Hispanics become homeowners.Genworth said the program includes "step-by-step instruction on the mortgage process and easy-to-use interactive tools to help users calculate payments and analyze rates." Genworth is offering the program in conjunction with Chase Home Finance, HomeBanc Mortgage Corp., and other lenders who have committed to making a Spanish-speaking loan officer available to guide homebuyers through the mortgage loan process. Tu Casa Ahora also offers users up to $2,000 in discounts and special offers on home-related products and services, Genworth said. The program will be promoted initially through local Telemundo station websites in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas. The program can be found online at http://www.tucasaahora.com.

Temple Inland Corp., Austin, Texas, will take a $13 million after-tax hit on its mortgage business in the third quarter as it prepares reserves related to key asset sales and layoffs.Temple, the parent of Guaranty Residential Lending, is in the process of selling its 100-branch nonbank mortgage network, as well as $8 billion in servicing rights. Temple, a paper products company, said some 1,500 employees will be "affected" by the sale of the branches and the servicing. However, it would not comment on any layoffs. A Temple spokesman said the company hopes employees working in the branches being sold will have an opportunity to retain their jobs. The company expects to complete the servicing and branch sale by the end of the fourth quarter. As recently reported by National Mortgage News, at least 30 firms have expressed interest in the network or regional pieces of it. First Horizon Home Loans, Irving, Texas, is believed to be the winning bidder on the West Coast operation. Aegis Mortgage of Houston has expressed interest in the network.

New- and existing-home sales will both reach record highs this year and should "ease but remain historically strong" in 2005, according to the National Association of Realtors.The NAR is projecting a record-shattering total of 6.49 million resales this year, far above last year's record of 6.10 million. The association's projection for new-home sales is a record 1.15 million, compared with 1.09 million in 2003. (In January, the NAR was projecting 5.85 million resales and 1.01 million new-home sales for this year.) NAR chief economist David Lereah said he expects a gradual easing in the housing sales pace in the first quarter of 2005, with the housing market "coasting at historically high levels as mortgage interest rates rise. At this point -- with strong market fundamentals -- we project next year will be the second-best overall year for the housing market." The NAR can be found online at http://www.realtor.org.

In a major multifamily real estate investment trust merger, Camden Property Trust, Houston, is acquiring Summit Properties, Charlotte, N.C., for about $1.9 billion, including the assumption of Summit debt.The deal places a value of $31.37 per Summit share, Camden said, based on the closing price of Camden shares on Oct 1. Summit shareholders may opt to receive either $31.20 in cash or 0.6687 of a Camden share per Summit share, the REIT said. "This strategic merger takes both Camden and Summit to the next level in size and potential," said Richard J. Campo, Camden's chairman and chief executive officer. "This merger creates the fifth-largest multifamily public company in the U.S., with a $5.7 billion total market capitalization and $2.9 billion equity market cap." Camden said the aggregate amount of cash issued in the merger to Summit stockholders will be about $434.4 million, and that the merger agreement may be terminated by Summit if the stock consideration payable to Summit shareholders falls below $39.31 per Camden share during the pre-merger period. Following the merger announcement, Summit shares opened at $30.40 on Oct. 5, after closing at $27.84 on the previous day. Camden shares had declined to $45.29 from an Oct. 4 closing of $46.90.

Homebuilder Pulte Homes has lowered its earnings guidance based primarily on lower-than-expected pricing and unit volume from the company's operations in Las Vegas, where prices have become higher than the market will support.Richard J. Dugas Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Pulte, said the builder "has already implemented actions to lower local market pricing to better align the company's operations with current market conditions" and now expects its earnings to be in the range of $1.95 to $2.05 per share versus the previously issued guidance of $2.00 to $2.10 per share. Pulte can be found on the Web at http://www.pulte.com.

New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif., has priced a public offering of 13.5 million shares of common stock at $58 per share, for gross proceeds of $783 million.The joint book-running managers of the offering are UBS Securities LLC and Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co., and the co-lead managers are Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. The underwriters have been granted an option to buy up to 2.025 million additional shares of the stock to cover any overallotments. In related news, New Century reported that it has agreed to sell 636,885 shares of common stock to Friedman, Billings and Ramsey Group Inc. at $58 per share (less certain discounts) in a private placement. New Century can be found on the Web at http://www.ncen.com.

Class K of Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp.'s commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1999-C1, has been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.The rating action was based on potential losses on the specially serviced loans that would "severely" affect the credit enhancement, Fitch said. Nine loans representing 10.3% of the pool are being special serviced by Lennar Partners Inc., according to the rating agency. One real-estate-owned property, totaling 2.3% of the pool, is collateralized by a parking garage in St. Louis and is now listed for sale. Fitch said "significant losses" may occur with its disposition. Another specially serviced loan (2.2%) is collateralized by an office property in San Mateo, Calif., and is 60 days delinquent. A tenant occupying 76% of the space has vacated and will cease rental payments in December 2004. Lennar is pursuing foreclosure and a receiver has been appointed, according to Fitch. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Household International Inc., Prospect Heights, Ill., and its holding company, HSBC North America Holdings Inc., have united under the HSBC brand name in the United States and Canada.HSBC said the move marks the completion of its integration with Household. HSBC can be found online at http://www.us.hsbc.com.

Amalgamated Bank of Chicago has joined forces with the Illinois Housing Development Authority and two mortgage service providers to offer first-time homebuyer assistance to qualified applicants in Illinois through its Union Advantage program."The IHDA program offers a 30- year fixed rate mortgage loan at below-market rates as well as grant money to cover the closing and downpayment costs of qualified applicants," said David Knopp, senior executive vice president of Amalgamated. Partnering with Amalgamated and the IHDA in the venture are Community Banc Mortgage, a mortgage processing, underwriting, and closing services company based in Aurora, Ill., and United Guaranty Residential Insurance Co., a provider of private mortgage insurance. Under the agreement, CBM will sell the Amalgamated loans to IHDA. Interest rates are typically 1/4% to 1/2% lower than market rates, with relaxed underwriting guidelines, the bank said.

The Eleventh Federal Home Loan Cost of Funds Index has risen for the third consecutive month.For August, the index stood at 1.875%, up from 1.816% in July, the second consecutive month of 6-basis-point increases. According to the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco's website, COFI for August was calculated based on data from 37 institutions. Average total funds for the month were $445.5 million, while average interest expenses totaled $696.0 million. The average total funds consisted of average deposit accounts of $252.0 billion, average advances of $114.8 billion, and average other borrowings of $78.7 billion. The three consecutive months of increases in the index value were the first since April-June 2002.

Primary new mortgage insurance written by the member companies of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America totaled $18.5 billion in August, up 1.5% from $18.3 billion in July.However, in August 2003, while the refinancing boom was still under way, these firms wrote $37.9 billion in primary new mortgage insurance, more than twice as much as in the latest period. The number of applications received in August totaled 153,696, up from 144,270 in July, but just under 60% of the 265,792 received in August 2003. Meaningful comparisons between current and previous-year MICA data are now possible because the year-ago statistics do not contain any information from The Radian Group, Philadelphia, which had resigned its membership in the group. The August cure/default ratio was 86.2%, an improvement from July's 67.9%. There were 36,602 cures and 42,482 defaults during the month.

Nearly a quarter-million undocumented Latino immigrants could become homeowners if they had greater access to the mortgage market, according to research that is said to be the first attempt at quantifying the economic impact this group of "illegals" would have on the economy.Together, the 216,000 who have the income necessary to afford a modest house would account for $44 billion in mortgage originations, the study found. Prepared for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, the report is sure to fan the flames of an already highly controversial issue of whether persons in this country illegally should be allowed to buy homes. But Gary Acosta, a San Diego mortgage broker who is chairman of the 12,000-member NAHREP, said at the group's annual marketing conference in Denver that undocumented Hispanics "would make cash registers ring all across America" if they had an easier path to homeownership. The study by Rob Paral and Associates says "finding ways to permit ownership among the undocumented is not the same as calling for legalization." While legalization "would be a powerful stimulus," access to credit would be even more so, the researcher says. Currently, neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac will buy loans made to undocumented immigrants.

AME Financial, a San Diego-based mortgage lender, has reported the sale of the majority of its Wholesale Lending Division to Universal Savings Bank, Milwaukee.The terms of the sale were not disclosed. The wholesale unit has branches in St. Louis; Sacramento and Temecula, Calif.; and Phoenix and Anthem, Ariz. Judy Dunham, AME's chief executive officer, said the transaction "enhances AME's ability to focus on its core business -- retail lending. We have grown consistently over the past two decades and want to accelerate our expansion in the retail arena."

Kramont Realty Trust, Plymouth Meeting, Pa., has reported a modification and extension of its $125 million secured revolving credit facility.The modifications include a reduction in the interest rate margin to a range of 130-175 basis points over the London interbank offered rate from a range of 175-225 bps and an option to increase the amount of the facility to $200 million over the next 24 months, the real estate investment trust said. The maturity was extended two years to Dec. 20, 2007. Banc of America Securities is the sole lead arranger of the facility, and Bank of America is the administrative agent. The equity REIT can be found online at http://www.kramont.com.

Freddie Mac has announced a new program that will help eligible employees become first-time homebuyers.The Home Benefit Program offers financial assistance and homeownership education to full- and part-time employees who make less than $75,000 in annual base pay and have worked at least a year at the government-sponsored enterprise, Freddie Mac said. The program provides an interest-free, forgivable benefit of up to $12,000 that can be used to cover downpayments, closing costs, loan origination fees, or discount points for first-time homebuyers. Twenty percent of the benefit is forgiven each year over five years of continued service, Freddie Mac said.

Two classes of J.P. Morgan Commercial Mortgage Finance Corp.'s mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1998-C6, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings.Class G was downgraded from B-minus to CCC and removed from Rating Watch Negative, and class H was downgraded from CCC to CC. Fitch also upgraded one class in the deal, affirmed the ratings on six other classes, and affirmed the rating on a seventh, class F, and removed it from Rating Watch Negative. The rating agency attributed the downgrades to expected losses on three specially serviced loans: a hotel in Honolulu, a hotel in San Mateo, Calif., and an industrial property in Dallas.

The long-term debt ratings of North Fork Bancorp. Inc. have been downgraded from A to A-minus and removed from Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings in the wake of the completion of North Fork's acquisition of GreenPoint Financial Corp.In addition, Fitch upgraded the long-term debt of GreenPoint, which had a significant residential mortgage platform, from BBB to A-minus and removed it from Rating Watch Positive. All other GreenPoint ratings have been aligned with those of North Fork, Fitch said. The rating outlook is Stable. Fitch can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.