Originations

Patrick F. Stone, until recently the chief executive officer of Fidelity National Information Solutions, has resigned from the board of directors of Fidelity National Financial Inc., the parent company of FNIS.The Jacksonville, Fla.-based FNF said Mr. Stone has signed a five-year noncompetition agreement and will remain a consultant to the company. FNF can be found on the Web at http://www.fnf.com.

Mortgage lenders reduced their payrolls by 7,500 full-time employees in November, reflecting the sharp dropoff in refinancings that started in September.The Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday show that employment in the mortgage banker/broker sector fell from 417,100 in October to 409,600 in November. The mortgage sector has been shedding jobs for three consecutive months. Meanwhile, the December jobs report disappointed many who expected to see a real boost in hiring. The BLS reported that only 1,000 new jobs were created in December, but the unemployment rate fell to 5.7%. (The December employment report provided mortgage sector employment data for November only. The BLS instituted this one-month lag when it revamped its jobs report in May.) The BLS can be found online at http://stats.bls.gov.

The board of directors of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. has announced the resignation of Christopher A. Peacock from the board and as the company's president and chief executive officer.Board chairman Stuart L. Scott will assume the role of interim CEO until a global search produces a permanent replacement, the company said. Jones Lang said it had accepted the resignation "with regret" and that Mr. Peacock had resigned to spend more time with his family. He served as chairman and CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle from 1999 to 2002, and as CEO of LaSalle Partners from 1990 until its merger with Jones Lang Wootton in 1999, the company said. He will continue to serve Jones Lang LaSalle on a consulting basis. The company, an international property services firm headquartered in Chicago, London, and Singapore, can be found online at http://www.joneslanglasalle.com.

Meanwhile, EOPT has announced that certain affiliates recently entered into nine joint venture agreements with the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association that involved nearly $600 million in investments by TIAA.TIAA and its affiliates acquired a 75% interest in a portfolio of 10 EOPT buildings for $442.5 million and an 80% stake in three buildings for $154 million, the real estate investment trust said. Seven of the buildings are in California, three are in Washington, D.C., and the others are in Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle. "Our investment strategy continues to include a particular focus on maximizing the return on our invested capital," said Richard Kincaid, EOPT's president and chief executive officer. "These joint ventures allow us to maintain an ownership interest in high-quality assets, and to continue to manage and lease the buildings as part of the Equity Office platform."

Two key executives of Equity Office Properties Trust, Chicago, have resigned to pursue other interests, the office real estate investment trust has reported.Peter Adams, executive vice president for strategic planning, and Christopher Mundy, EVP for operations, led the planning and operations for EOPT's Western and Eastern regions, respectively. The responsibilities of the two, who assumed their roles in 2001, are being transferred to Peyton Owen, the EOPT's EVP and chief operating officer, the REIT said. EOPT estimates that the charge to earnings from severance paid to the two executives will be approximately $5 million. The REIT can be found online at http://www.equityoffice.com.

Craig S. Davis, a former president of Washington Mutual's home loans and insurance services group, has joined the board of directors of Ellie Mae.Mr. Davis, who has more than 25 years of senior management experience in the mortgage and financial services industry, served as WaMu's mortgage chief for seven years. He retired suddenly from the Seattle-based thrift last fall in the wake of a disclosure that it would book a loss in the third quarter related to mortgage loan sales because of problems in tracking loan commitments. Sig Anderman, Ellie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer, praised Mr. Davis's leadership at WaMu and predicted that his perspective "will be invaluable as we enter our critical next phase in leveraging state-of-the-art technology for mortgage brokers, lenders, and service providers." Ellie Mae can be found online at http://www.elliemae.com.

First Federal of the South, Sylacauga, Ala., has announced the acquisition of Walton Mortgage Inc., Chelsea, Ala., for $100,000 in cash.The thrift institution said the mortgage company's chief executive officer, Dot Walton, and its president, Alana Beaugez, will remain with the company, which has become a division of the thrift's wholly owned subsidiary, SouthFirst Mortgage Inc. It will continue to operate under the name Walton Mortgage. Joe K. McArthur, president and CEO of First Federal, said the acquisition will complement the mortgage banking activities of SouthFirst, located in Birmingham, by adding mortgage origination offices in Huntsville, Montgomery, Cullman, and Alexander City.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate crept up to 5.87% for the week ending Jan. 9 from 5.85% the previous week, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate inched up from 5.15% to 5.17%, and the average rate for one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages rose from 3.72% to 3.76%. Fees and points averaged 0.7 of a point for fixed-rate mortgages and 0.6 of a point for ARMs. "With mortgage rates expected to remain around current modest levels, housing activity will continue to be brisk in 2004," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "Although home starts and sales will slip a little this year from last year, we should still experience construction and sales volumes that exceed 2002's levels, which was a great year for housing." A year ago, the average 30-year and 15-year fixed rates were 5.95% and 5.33%, respectively, and the average one-year ARM rate was 4.03%, Freddie Mac said. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Hersha Hospitality Trust, Harrisburg, Pa., has announced an agreement with Hasu P. Shah, Hersha's chairman and chief executive officer, and trustee K. D. Patel to cancel all the unit options held by them that were issued at the time of the company's initial public offering.The real estate investment trust said the units were issued in conjunction with a special stock appreciation rights plan established for the benefit of employees of Hersha's affiliated management company, Hersha Hospitality Management LP. To cancel the options and SARs, Hersha paid in cash the difference between the $6 exercise price and $9.69 (the closing price per common share on Dec. 11) for the more than 250,000 SARs outstanding. The proceeds were distributed to approximately 150 employees of HHMLP. The hotel REIT can be found online at http://www.hersha.com.

Brandywine Realty Trust, Plymouth Meeting, Pa., is selling 2.3 million shares of common stock to Bear, Stearns & Co. in an offering that is expected to bring in $60 million for the office and industrial real estate investment trust.The proceeds will be used to pay down drawings under its revolving credit facility that were used last December to fund the approximately $20 million acquisition of a 112,000-square-foot New Jersey office property and to partly fund a redemption of its 8.75% preferred shares, the REIT said. The underwriter of the offering has the option of purchasing an additional 345,000 shares to cover any overallotments.

Bank of America Corp. has pledged $750 billion in community development loans and investments over the next 10 years.The pledge, which BoA termed the largest of its kind, represents the expanded joint contribution of BoA and FleetBoston Financial, as the banks are expected to merge sometime this year upon the approval of the Federal Reserve Board. The new goal replaces prior commitments: in 2003, BoA completed the fifth year of a 10-year $350 billion goal to invest in community and small business development, affordable housing, and lending to low- and moderate-income borrowers. Since 1999, BoA has delivered nearly $230 billion, while Fleet has already surpassed its five-year commitment to invest $14.6 billion by the end of 2004, delivering over $18.4 billion in community development lending and investing. "Consistent with previously stated pledges by Bank of America to the Fleet region to maintain employment and charitable contributions levels, more than $100 billion of this new goal will be achieved through lending and investments in Fleet markets," said Kenneth D. Lewis, BoA's chairman and chief executive officer.

Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., has announced that its long-time independent auditor, Grant Thornton LLP, has been replaced by KPMG LLP, but that the move was not based on any dispute with Grant Thornton over accounting principles or practices.Countrywide praised Grant Thornton, which has been the company's independent auditor since the early 1970s, adding that the company would complete Countrywide's 2003 audit. The appointment of KPMG was made by the Audit and Ethics Committee of Countrywide's board of directors based on a comprehensive review of audit firms that began in mid-2003, the company said.

The amount of primary new insurance written by the members of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America totaled $22.0 billion in November, down 28% from $30.6 billion in October.November was mortgage insurers' worst month of the year by far in terms of volume, as the total fell below the levels of the traditional category alone in the earlier months. Rising mortgage rates seem to have put a damper on the volume of business written, but many in the industry are welcoming the rise because it will stem the problems the companies are having with persistency. (The data were affected by the fact that Radian Guaranty left MICA in July 2003 and no longer supplies data to the trade group.) By type, there was $17.2 billion of traditional and $4.9 billion of bulk insurance written. The number of applications received fell from 233,393 in October to 154,348 in November. Pool risk written totaled $124.5 million in November, and the cure/default ratio was 95.5%, with 40,071 cures and 41,979 defaults. MICA can be found on the Web at www.micadc.org.

New- and existing-home sales will both decline this year but should post their second-best totals on record, according to the National Association of Realtors.The NAR is projecting 5.85 million resales and 1.01 million new-home sales in 2004, compared with last year's record estimated totals of 6.07 million and 1.08 million, respectively, said David Lereah, the association's chief economist. He is forecasting that housing starts will total 1.71 million units in 2004, down from an estimated 1.84 million in 2003, the best performance since 1978. The NAR is projecting that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate will average 6.5% this year and that the gross domestic product will grow 4.7%. "On the heels of three consecutive record years for home sales, the uptick in mortgage interest rates will offset some of the benefits of an improving economy," Mr. Lereah said. "However, the impact will be fairly minimal, because the fundamental conditions for a strong housing market remain -- a growing number of households, an improving job market, and generally good affordability conditions." The NAR can be found on the Internet at http://realtor.org.

WHY USA Financial Group Inc., Bloomington, Minn., has announced the acquisition of TCS Mortgage Inc., a San Diego-based mortgage banker.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. WHY USA said TCS has operations in California and Nevada and specializes in new construction and new-home sales. The combined originations of TCS and WHY USA's other mortgage subsidiary, Discover Mortgage, totaled more than $500 million in 2003, the company said. "This transaction brings us much closer to our strategic goal of becoming a national force in the fulfillment of comprehensive real estate, mortgage, and lending services," said Don Riesterer, chairman of WHY USA. The company can be found online at http://www.whyusa.com.

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, rose from 574.1 to 599.9 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the holiday-shortened week ended Jan. 2, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications rose 23.5% on the week, and they were down 53.2% from the level of a year earlier. The Purchase Index rose from 390.1 to 401.3 on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the Refinance Index climbed from 1644.3 to 1755.4. Refinancings represented 49.7% of total applications, up from 49.3% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 30.3%. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose from 5.73% to 5.81%, and points (including the origination fee) increased from 1.31 to 1.43 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

A stock index of multifamily companies compiled by the National Association of Home Builders did not outperform the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index in 2003.Final figures for 2003 show that the S&P 500 had a 28.6% total return, while the NAHB's multifamily stock index posted a 23.9% total return. MortgageWire reported Dec. 31 that the NAHB's stock index of 24 real estate investment trusts and four other publicly trade multifamily companies had a 20% gain, compared with a 15% gain by the S&P 500. But those results were for the first 11 months of 2003 -- not the full year.

Bilingual Scout, a Dallas-based Internet marketing firm, has developed Micasaprestamos.com to guide Spanish-speaking U.S. residents interested in becoming homeowners to find Spanish-speaking mortgage lenders nationwide.The "one-stop" homebuying resource will serve both new Hispanic immigrants and third-generation Hispanic-Americans to whom buying their first home "can be difficult, time consuming, and cumbersome," the company said. The website provides state-based lists of mortgage professionals, data, and information about the mortgage transaction, downpayment assistance, and credit counseling resources, as well as home prices and availability. Besides bringing in leads to member brokers and lenders, Micasaprestamos.com (which is available in both Spanish and English) offers information on mortgage-related job opportunities as well as access to companies that have pledged special programs and assistance to help Hispanic borrowers.

HRPT Properties Trust, Newton, Mass., has announced an offering of 25 million common shares of beneficial interest.The company said it expects to use the proceeds of the offering to reduce the outstanding amounts on its revolving credit facility. The joint book-running managers for the offering are Merrill Lynch & Co. and RBC Capital Markets. HRPT, a real estate investment trust, can be found on the Internet at http://www.hrpreit.com.

Omega Healthcare Investors Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Timonium, Md., has closed on a $50 million acquisition line of credit.The new line, arranged by GE Healthcare Financial Services, will be secured by first liens on facilities acquired or assignments of mortgages made on new acquisitions, Omega said. The interest rate of 3.75% above the London interbank offered rate (with a 6% floor) is the same as that of Omega's existing credit facility. Omega also announced that it has re-leased six skilled-nursing facilities, sold two SNFs, and sold its investment in an Australian asset. The company can be found online at http://www.omegahealthcare.com.