Originations

AmeriDream Inc., a downpayment assistance provider based in Gaithersburg, Md., has launched the DreamKeeper Mortgage Payment Relief Program, which combines mortgage payment protection against involuntary unemployment and disability with the downpayment gift.Unlike similar products, it offers homebuyers fully paid principal, interest, taxes, and insurance for up to nine months if borrowers lose their job or become disabled, and allows for extended coverage of up to five years after a six-month vesting period. "Many mortgage protection programs in our industry only cover the first year following the purchase of the home," said Ann Ashburn, AmeriDream's president and chief executive officer. She added that, according to HUD's 2003 delinquency and foreclosure report to Congress, these defaults occur mostly between the second and fifth years of homeownership. "We designed DreamKeeper so it would benefit people when they need it the most," she said. The company can be found online at http://www.ameridream.org.

American Equity Mortgage, St. Louis, has announced the acquisition of Integrity Mortgage Corp., Columbus, Ohio, for an undisclosed amount.Integrity Mortgage will continue to operate under its current name. It was founded in 1992 by Mike Vinson, brother of American Equity's founder, Ray Vinson. Deanna Daughhetee Vinson, American Equity's chief executive officer, said Integrity Mortgage is "a perfect geographic fit for us and allows us to fill in several key markets in the Midwest." The combined entity will close loans in 20 states and have an annual loan volume of about $2.5 billion, the companies said. Integrity Mortgage can be found on the Web at http://www.integritymortgage.com.

Commercial servicers expect that only 20% of their portfolios, representing $132 billion in loans, will have terrorism risk insurance in place by next spring if the "make available" provision of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act is not extended, according to a survey conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association.The MBA said this represents a reduction of 76% in the balance of loans that would be covered by terrorism insurance. "It [the survey] underscores the significant need for an extension of the 'make-available' provision to ensure that terrorism insurance is priced within reach and that there is continued availability," said Gail Davis Cardwell, senior vice president in the MBA's commercial/multifamily group. "The MBA is urging the U.S. Department of the Treasury to extend this provision to avoid a potential market collapse." The organization reported that 94% of the servicers responding to the survey expect their expenses to rise if the "make available" provision is not extended. The survey covered servicers representing one-third of the $2 trillion commercial/multifamily servicing market, according to the trade association. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.28% for the week ending June 4 from 6.33% the previous week, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate fell from 5.69% to 5.63%, while the average rate for one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs rose from 3.87% to 3.98%. Fees and points averaged 0.7 of a point for fixed-rate mortgages and 0.6 of a point for ARMs. "Financial markets are in limbo at the moment, waiting on [Friday's] jobs report for an indication that the growth in the economy is sustainable," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "We had two months of really strong job increases, and a third month would reassure markets and be a stabilizing factor." A year ago, the average 30-year and 15-year fixed rates were 5.26% and 4.66%, respectively, and the average one-year ARM rate was 3.59%, Freddie Mac said. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

AMB Property Corp., a San Francisco-based real estate investment trust, has obtained an early renewal of a $500 million senior unsecured revolving line of credit that was due to mature in December 2005.The industrial REIT said the three-year credit facility includes a provision under which up to $250 million can be drawn in yen, euros, or pounds sterling. In addition, the LOC, which matures in June 2007, can be increased to $700 million under certain conditions. Credit under the new facility is priced at 60 basis points above the applicable London interbank offered rate for both the dollar and the foreign currency components. There is also an annual facility fee of 20 bps. "The ability to quickly deploy capital in multiple currencies improves our agility in targeted global market," said Hamid R. Moghadam, AMB chairman and chief executive officer. J.P. Morgan Securities and Banc of America Securities have jointly arranged the facility for a syndicate of 18 U.S. and international banks.

American Home Mortgage Corp., Melville, N.Y., has announced that it will be providing private-label mortgage processing services for Signature Bank, New York, through AHM's online channel, Mortgage Select.The bank will maintain its own client relationships and sales efforts. "Mortgage Select's private-label program will provide Signature Bank's bankers with state-of-the-art processing and support technology," said Donald Henig, executive vice president of AHM's parent, American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., a real estate investment trust. "These features allow Signature Bank's private client teams to concentrate on client relationships and sales efforts as they maintain complete control throughout the mortgage loan process." Among the products AHM brings to the bank are condominium and co-op loans. In addition, another American Home Mortgage Investment subsidiary, Columbia National Inc., will assume the servicing rights of $46 million in existing Signature Bank mortgages.

Home prices increased 8.5% nationwide over the 12 months ended March 31, up from 5.1% in the comparable period a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac.In the first quarter alone, prices rose at an annualized rate of 5.6%, Freddie Mac reported in releasing its quarterly Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index. The index showed that the Pacific states recorded the largest gains in home prices, which rose 14.3% for the 12-month period. The Middle Atlantic states of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania followed with a 10.9% growth rate, and the New England states finished third with a 10.7% rate. "The first quarter of the year was great for the housing market," said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist. "Low and declining mortgage rates over the quarter that bottomed out in March at 5.4% for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, pushed home sales to a healthy 7.37 million units (annualized rate), and this strong housing demand helped keep house price appreciation well ahead of overall inflation." The index was jointly developed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Members of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America wrote $19.5 billion of private mortgage insurance in April, down 3.7% from $20.3 billion in March.Of April's total, $16.6 billion came from traditional insurance, down from $16.8 billion the previous month. Both the total volume and traditional volume results represent the industry's second-best month of the year so far. Bulk purchases fell from $3.4 billion in March to $2.9 billion in April. Application volume totaled 181,471, down 4.1% from 189,311 in March, but still well ahead of the application volume for January and February. New pool risk written amounted to $81.1 million, compared with $83.4 million in March. After two months of having more cures than defaults, the cure/default ratio once again slipped below 100%. The April ratio stood at 90.6%, with 34,872 cures and 38,490 defaults. Since July 2003, MICA data do not include information from Radian Guaranty Inc., Philadelphia, which dropped out of the trade group in a policy dispute. MICA can be found online at http://www.micanews.com.

Old Republic National Title Insurance Co., Minneapolis, has created a new unit that will be dedicated to providing bundled services and pricing solutions to its network of independent agents and direct operations.The new unit is being branded as ORPAK, short for Old Republic Packaged Services. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, it is an outgrowth of the Agency Services Department of Old Republic Title Residential Information Services. "As the business of this department grew, it became increasingly evident that eventually we needed to treat this department as a business in its own right, as opposed to a department within another business, whose mission, quite frankly, was diverging," said Rande Yeager, president and chief executive of Old Republic National. "The elevation of ORPAK to division status underscores the importance of bundling as a trend and the continuing importance of the local agent to the company's future." The new division will serve mortgage brokers, community banks, savings institutions, credit unions, and smaller mortgage bankers that are trying to figure out how to compete against big national lenders in offering bundled services.

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, fell from 632.4 to 624.6 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended May 28, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications fell 1.5% on the week and were down 55.6% from the level of a year earlier. The Purchase Index rose from 449.8 to 459.8 on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the Refinance Index fell from 1694.9 to 1583.6. Refinancings represented 34.3% of total applications, down from 36.2% 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 fell from 6.26% to 6.24%, and points (including the origination fee) were unchanged at 1.35 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

Kathleen Lipps has been named senior vice president of the Northeast Division of WMC Mortgage Corp., a subprime wholesale lender based in Woodland Hills, Calif.Ms. Lipps, a veteran of more than 15 years in the mortgage industry, will manage WMC's newest regional hub in Rockland County, N.Y., as well as plan and carry out strategies for growth in the Northeast, the company said. She was most recently a vice president and senior regional manager with New Century Mortgage Corp. WMC can be found on the Web at http://www.wmcdirect.com.

HEI Hospitality, Norwalk, Conn., has announced the closing of a $275 million discretionary equity fund specializing in lodging investments.The HEI Hospitality Fund will focus on acquiring first-class, full-service hotels in the United States, the hotel investment company said. Merritt Hospitality, a wholly owned subsidiary of HEI, will be the preferred operator of the hotels acquired by the fund. "This equity, prudently leveraged, will give us the financial strength and flexibility to acquire up to approximately $800 million in hotels over the next 24-36 months," said Gary Mendell, HEI's chairman and chief executive officer. "HEI seeks to acquire hotels with 200 to 500 rooms in the top 50 U.S. markets."

Assisted Living Concepts, Dallas, is considering the appointment of a financial adviser to assist it in "exploring various strategic alternatives," according to the company.As a result of this and other considerations, Assisted Living has postponed indefinitely the company's annual meeting that was slated for June 3. Bruce E. Toll, who owns 27.91% of the company's common stock, has notified Assisted Living that he is going to nominate Brian S. Dunn, Bryon J. Haney, Michael P. Markman, and Steven J. Silver to the board of directors at its annual meeting, the company has reported. In addition, Mr. Toll has given notice that he intends to vote for Leonard Tannenbaum, Steven Vick, and Mark Holliday, as well as the four persons he is nominating, at the annual meeting. "Our board is evaluating Mr. Toll's notice to the company, and no determination has been made as to whether the notice is in compliance with the company's bylaws and applicable law," Assisted Living said.

Hopkins Real Estate Group, Newport Beach, Calif., has joined forces with Rockwood Capital Corp., San Francisco, to form a new company to develop, redevelop, and acquire retail properties in California.In connection with the move, Rockwood Capital's Fund V has committed up to $50 million of equity with HREG for the activities of the new company, Rockwood/Hopkins LLC. HREG said Rockwood/Hopkins' first project is a neighborhood center in San Clemente.

As other rates continue to rise, the Eleventh Federal Home Loan Cost of Funds Index has set another new low.The rate for April was 1.802%, down a little over 1 basis point from 1.815% in March. As a sign of where the index may be going several months from now, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey found that the average rate for the one-year adjustable-rate mortgage bottomed out at 3.41% in March, before rising to 3.65% in April and 3.88% in May. The survey found that the one-year ARM hit a peak of 3.86% last September and hovered around 3.75% for three months before starting to fall again in January and February. COFI is known as a lagging index -- its movement is typically three to six months behind that of other indices.

Freddie Mac says it is still working toward releasing its quarterly and annual financial results for 2003 by the end of June."That is our goal," Freddie spokeswoman Sharon McHale said. The giant mortgage company, which is trying to recover from a $5 billion accounting scandal, released a restatement of its 2002 earnings last November. The restatement showed that Freddie's profits totaled $10.1 billion in 2002. The company originally reported a $5.7 profit when it was trying to manage and smooth out its earnings to please Wall Street. Freddie Mac officials have not provided guidance on when the 2004 first-quarter results will be ready for release. The government-sponsored enterprise can be found on the Web at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Little if any of the $600 million fund the city of New York and the Battery Park City Authority agreed to invest in affordable housing development in 1989 has been spent on housing, according to a report by the New York City Independent Budget Office.Instead, Mayor Mike Bloomberg recently announced plans to divert BPCA revenue to finance the expansion of the Javits Center and the Far West Side redevelopment plan, said Housing First, the New York-based public education alliance of over 260 community, business, civic, labor, and religious groups that requested the report. Housing First director Joe Weisbord expressed concern that city officials are not fulfilling the BPCA agreement, even though its intent "was clearly to create affordable housing." Given what he termed a worsening housing crisis for low- to middle-income New Yorkers, "We must seize that opportunity," Mr. Weisbord said. Concerns are fueled by city estimates that about $30 million annually would be needed to secure the city's share of the Javits project, the report said. Overall, the BPCA is expected to generate "at least $75 million each year in excess revenue," funds that could be used for affordable housing, Mr. Weisbord said. Mayor Bloomberg could not be reached for comment.

Luxury home values were up dramatically in the first quarter from those of a year earlier in Los Angeles and San Diego, according to the Prestige Home Index released by First Republic Bank, San Francisco.The index indicates that values had jumped 17.9% in Los Angeles, to $1.66 million, eclipsing the previous record set in 1990. In San Diego, luxury home values were up 15.1% compared with those of the first quarter of 2003, First Republic reported. They rose to $1.64 million, the fourth consecutive quarterly record. Meanwhile, luxury home values rose 8.3% in the San Francisco Bay area compared with those of a year earlier, as average values reached $2.37 million, just short of the $2.39 million record high set in the second quarter of 2001. "Luxury home values in California rose sharply in the first quarter of 2004 due to strong demand, limited inventory, an improving economy, and concern that interest rates, which are still low by historic[al] standards, will continue to rise," said Katherine August-deWilde, First Republic's chief operating officer. First Republic produces the index quarterly with Case Shiller Weiss, a provider of automated property valuation services and home price metrics. The bank can be found online at http://www.firstrepublic.com.

The American Bankers Association has launched a campaign to educate consumers about mortgage lending.Throughout June, which is Homeownership Month, the ABA said it will release weekly tips on the mortgage process to help families understand the obligations they undertake when buying a home. "Many Americans dream of owning a home, but the mortgage process can be intimidating," said Edward L. Yingling, executive vice president of the ABA. "By educating consumers about the mortgage process, bankers hope to expand homeownership opportunities." The ABA can be found on the Web at http://www.aba.com.

Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., Milwaukee, has announced a new program under which borrowers with eligible MGIC-insured loans can obtain protection from home foreclosure in the event of disability or involuntary unemployment.The Mortgage Payment Protection Plan, which MGIC termed the first of its kind in the private mortgage insurance industry, is offered at no cost to lenders or consumers. MGIC said it pays the premium for the MPP Plan's protection of monthly mortgage principal and interest payments to a third-party insurance provider. "The program enables MGIC to reduce its losses and to pass on that benefit to help protected borrowers," the company said. The plan is targeted at first-time homebuyers and emerging-markets loan programs. MGIC can be found online at http://www.mgic.com.