Originations

Thornburg Mortgage Inc., Santa Fe, N.M., has reported record net income of $45.8 million ($0.68 per share) for the third quarter, compared with $32.6 million ($0.67 per share) a year earlier.Thornburg Mortgage Home Loans Inc., the company's mortgage lending subsidiary, closed $997.4 million in adjustable-rate mortgage loans during the quarter, up 64% from that of a year earlier. "Though interest rates have risen and refinancing activity has declined materially, ARMs have gained in popularity versus traditional 30-year mortgages, and as a result, our origination channels continue to produce healthy volumes," said Joseph Badal, chief executive officer of the lending subsidiary. Thornburg Mortgage, a real estate investment trust, can be found online at http://www.thornburg.com.

America's Community Bankers has expanded its partnership with Habitat for Humanity International, aiming to have ACB members collectively invest up to $500,000 annually in affordable housing for low- to moderate-income borrowers, ACB announced Monday at its annual convention in Las Vegas.ACB chairman D. Russell Taylor challenged member banks to "participate and give generously" and play their part in the "Congress Builds America" program. The new partnership is an expansion of a $230,000 contribution the association has given to the affordable housing investment market over the past three years through ACB Housing Partners Foundation Inc. Since 2001, ACB members and their families have also participated in Habitat's new housing construction, in addition to ACB's newest commitment of $100,000 for the CBA program. "Basically, this is the next step in expanding our relationship with Habitat to the next level, moving from a national-based cooperation to a more local-based cooperation wherever both our organizations have representation across the country," said association spokesman Jim Eberle. ACB can be found online at http://www.acbankers.org.

American Business Financial Services Inc., Philadelphia, has announced the refinancing of an off-balance-sheet mortgage warehouse conduit and the transfer into the conduit of $133 million of mortgage loans previously held in other warehouse facilities.The subprime lender said it expects the entire $173 million of mortgage loans in the conduit to be available for future sale or securitization. The financing was arranged with Greenmont Inc., a conduit controlled by an unnamed large international financial institution. Albert W. Mandia, executive vice president and chief financial officer of ABFS, said the company believes the refinancing "will accelerate our ability to make progress under our previously announced adjusted business model, which focuses on originating and selling whole loans in the secondary market, supplemented by smaller private securitizations in lieu of reliance on the origination of loans for sale in large, publicly underwritten securitizations." ABFS ran into some financial trouble earlier this year when it found it difficult to find buyers for its securities.

Wachovia Mortgage Corp., Charlotte, N.C., says it believes it can gain market share in 2004 by leveraging the resources of its $364 billion-asset parent bank.In the wake of the September 2001 merger of Wachovia and First Union Bank (First Union was the acquirer but took the Wachovia name), all real estate lending was brought under one roof, and the mortgage bank was realigned into the general bank. Top officers of the mortgage company, in San Diego for the MBA annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, said Wachovia is poised to triple production through its network of 2,700 retail branches in 11 states from Connecticut to Florida, and hopes to tap heavily the 3,600 Wachovia Securities brokers around the country for mortgage referrals. The three executives -- Bob Burton, head of Wachovia General Bank's retail credit businesses; C.D. Davies, chief operating officer of Wachovia Mortgage; and George Rosario, the mortgage banker's head of retail lending -- told MortgageWire that Wachovia will also look to its wealth management (private banking) operation for leads on jumbo and superjumbo mortgages. This internal leveraging will help Wachovia Mortgage gain market share even in a declining market, the officers said.

To get a true understanding of Freddie Mac's financials one would have to "triangulate," Freddie executive vice president and chief operating officer Paul Peterson told a press luncheon Oct. 20 at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's annual convention in San Diego.He compared it to using a global positioning system, which uses three reference points to get an accurate location. A single summary statistic does not give an accurate measure of Freddie Mac, according to Mr. Peterson. Part of the problem is that a large portion of assets are being marked to market but liabilities are not, which he said will result in volatility in Freddie Mac's financial statement. The fair-value balance sheet is more important because it marks to market all assets and all liabilities. Separately, Mr. Peterson said that unlike Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac expects to meet all three of its affordable housing goals. During a refinance boom it becomes a challenge to meet these goals, but earlier this year Freddie Mac was very active in seeking out portfolios of loans to meet the affordable housing criteria, he said.

A $25 million faith-based initiative to help families in the New Jersey area become first-time homeowners has been launched by Faith Fellowship Community Development Corp., Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and Freddie Mac.The program, Faith to Home, is designed to "help families to overcome multiple barriers to homeownership, including impaired credit, inadequate savings for a downpayment, and a lack of information about homeownership and confidence in their ability to become homeowners," Freddie Mac said. The initiative combines $25 million in flexible, low-downpayment mortgages through Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac with Freddie Mac's CreditSmart financial literacy program. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

The improved economic and financial status of American households accounted for nearly all the growth in the homeownership rate during the 1990s, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.The announcement was based on a study by the Research Institute for Housing America, an independent trust fund of the MBA. "The results of the study highlight the key role that a strong and growing economy plays for raising the homeownership rates, especially for minority households," said Doug Duncan, the MBA's chief economist and senior vice president for research and business development. The study also found that the homeownership gap between white and both Hispanic and black homeownership rates in 2001 did not decline substantially from the levels recorded in 1989, according to RIHA. The study, "Causes of the Increase in Homeownership in the 1990s: A Retrospective View," was conducted by Professors Stuart Rosenthal of Syracuse University and Stuart Gabriel of the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mbaa.org.

Decade Systems Corp., Jacksonville, Fla., is offering its TEDI data integration technology system to the commercial mortgage industry, taking advantage of the industry's progress in developing data standards through the Mortgage Industry Standard Maintenance Organization.The MISMO standards provide specifications for the transfer of data between all sectors of the residential and commercial mortgage industry, using Extensible Markup Language. Decade, a systems integration company, said it expects to use the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's MISMO standards to provide better business connectivity for commercial mortgage lenders and their software vendors, the company said at the MBA's annual convention in San Diego. "The commercial mortgage industry is beginning to embrace a networked business model, where information transparency and data consistency are keys to confidence for trading partners and investors alike," said Daniel Szparaga, director of the MBA's commercial/multifamily business group. "By taking advantage of aspects of residential technology innovation and modifying them to meet commercial needs, commercial mortgage professionals can leverage technology through MISMO to rapidly develop connectivity between partners -- producing a seamless fit."

Boykin Lodging Co., Cleveland, has closed a three-year, $78 million revolving line of credit secured by seven properties owned by the real estate investment trust.The facility has a floating interest rate initially set at 3.75% over the London interbank offered rate, Boykin said. The hotel REIT has drawn $74 million under the new line to repay its senior secured line of credit and a $45 million term loan with an outstanding balance of $42 million. Boykin can be found on the Web at http://www.boykinlodging.com.

Municipal Mortgage & Equity, Baltimore, has reported net income of $18.1 million ($0.63 per share) for the third quarter, a huge increase from the $0.2 million ($0.01 per share) reported for the third quarter of 2002.The increase resulted mainly from a $13.4 million improvement in "unrealized gains on derivative securities" during the period, the company said. The investor in multifamily debt and equity (mostly in tax-exempt bonds) has declared a dividend of $0.45 per share for the third quarter, up 2% from the comparable period of 2002. During the third quarter, MuniMae has provided $317 million in financing for multifamily housing and raised $145 million in tax credit equity, the company said. It has also closed on the previously reported acquisition of HCI, a unit of Lend Lease Corp. MuniMae can be found online at http://www.munimaemidland.com.

GreenPoint Financial Corp., New York, has reported earnings of $104 million ($0.85 per share) for the third quarter, down 10% from $126.5 million ($0.94 per share) a year earlier.Thomas S. Johnson, chairman and chief executive of the company, said "the sudden increase in interest rates had an immediate, negative impact on mortgage banking, making the third quarter a difficult one." GreenPoint originated $9.4 billion of mortgages in the third quarter, down 20.2% from the second quarter and 3.2% from a year earlier.

Eight classes of COMM 2000-FL3's commercial mortgage pass-through certificates have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings.The downgrades were as follows: class D, from BBB-minus to BB; class K-QA, from BBB-plus to BB-plus; class L-QA, from BBB to BB; class K-SR, from BBB-plus to BBB; class L-SR, from BBB to BBB-minus; class K-HS, from BBB-minus to BB; class L-HS, from BBB to BB; and class M-HS, from BBB-minus to BB-minus. Classes K-HS, L-HS, and M-HS were also placed on Rating Watch Negative. In addition, the rating agency upgraded one class in the deal and affirmed the ratings on two others. Fitch said the downgrades stemmed from the deteriorating performance of four loans: 10 Hanover Square, an office property in downtown New York; The Queens Atrium, a mixed-use property in the Queens borough of New York City; the Whitehall Conference Center in Leesburg, Va.; and Sunnyvale Research Center in Sunnyvale, Calif. Fitch can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Michael J. Sonego has been named senior vice president and head of residential mortgage banking and title services for Citizens Banking Corp., Flint, Mich.Mr. Sonego will be responsible for both retail and wholesale mortgage origination. Before joining Citizens, Mr. Sonego was employed for nearly 20 years by Bank One and its predecessors in management positions in mortgage sales support and mortgage origination, the company said. Citizens provides residential mortgage services in Michigan through Citizens Bank Mortgage Co. and has mortgage departments in Citizens Bank-Illinois and F&M Banks in Wisconsin and Iowa.

Stewart Information Services Corp., Houston, has announced the formation of a new entity, Stewart REI Data Inc., to provide information to title agents, lenders, real estate agents and brokers, and federal, state, and local governments.The parent company said the new unit's business will focus on data access, data and application integration, and product distribution. Max Harris and Steve Otto have been named division presidents of Stewart REI Data, with the former concentrating on the market and the latter on operations and databases. The move "allows us to provide more consistent direction to our REI product lines and to expand our market presence," said Don O'Neill, group president of the new company. The parent company can be found online at http://www.stewart.com.

Single-family housing starts rose 3.1% in September to close out a record third quarter of construction activity.The U.S. Census Bureau reported that single-family starts rose from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.47 million in August to 1.52 million in September. National Association of Home Builders economist Michael Carliner estimates that starts in the third quarter eclipsed the record set in the third quarter of 1977. "This is the best quarter ever," he said. He also noted that builders have an unusually high number of units under construction, as well as a high number of unused permits. "We are busting at the seams," he said. The industry is running into capacity constraints because of a shortage of OSB wood panels, a plywood substitute.

A poll by October Research has found significant opposition to the bundled servicing component of proposed reforms of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.Seventy-five percent of those polled said they did not support the bundling component of the rule. Of those, 44% said the rule should be scrapped entirely, with 31% wanting a rule with only the good-faith estimate portion included. Eight percent of respondents wanted the rule to go forward as planned, and 7% preferred a rule containing the bundling provision but not the good-faith estimate. The remaining 10% said they did not have enough information. The approximately 2,000 people polled Oct. 16 were loan originators, independent title companies, real estate attorneys, Realtors, and government officials. The poll was carried out as part of RESPA radio, a forum on the proposed rules.

New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif., has been assigned a long-term counterparty credit rating of BB-minus by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, according to New Century.The specialty mortgage company also received an unsecured debt rating of B-plus. "These ratings reflect the significant improvement that the company has made over the last several years in increasing its capital base, cash flow, and liquidity," said Robert K. Cole, New Century's chairman and chief executive officer. He predicted that recent "strategic initiatives" to strengthen the company's balance sheet and diversify its revenues will lead to ratings upgrades. "Investment-grade status is certainly the financial recognition we seek to achieve," he said. S&P's lowest investment-grade rating is BBB-minus. The company can be found online at http://www.ncen.com.

Windrose Medical Properties Trust, Indianapolis, has closed a $10 million secured mezzanine credit facility with The Huntington Real Estate Investment Co.Windrose, a real estate investment trust that focuses on specialty medical properties, said the facility is secured by its guarantee and by a pledge of interest in a single-purpose entity owning an individual property. The REIT said the facility will be used for self-developed construction projects and acquisitions. The line is available for draws over a 24-month period, with each draw having a two-year term. Windrose also announced the closing of a $4 million working capital facility with Union Planters Bank, Indianapolis. The REIT can be found on the Web at http://www.windrosempt.com.

General Growth Properties, a retail real estate investment trust based in Chicago, is acquiring three retail properties for a total of $550 million.The REIT has closed on the purchase of the 675,000-square-foot Sikes Center in Wichita Falls, Texas, and has entered into agreements to acquire The Maine Mall, a 1.1 million-square-foot mall in South Portland, Maine, and the 1.2 million-square-foot Glenbrook Square in Fort Wayne, Ind. The acquisitions are each being funded with a combination of five-year, nonrecourse, variable-rate mortgages; cash; and advances under an unsecured revolving credit facility, the REIT said. By MortgageWire's deadline, a spokesman for the REIT was not available to comment on the specifics of the mortgage financing. John Bucksbaum, GGP's chief executive officer, said the properties are "the single dominant regional mall destinations in the markets they serve."

Thomas W. Drennan, senior lending officer of Astoria Financial Corp. and the head of its mortgage services division, will retire on Nov. 30, the thrift holding company has announced.Mr. Drennan, 59, who also holds the title of executive vice president, will be replaced by Gary T. McCann, senior vice president and director of residential lending at the Lake Success, N.Y.-based Astoria. Mr. Drennan said he was retiring to spend more time with his family, and noted the growth of Astoria Federal Savings and Loan Association's loan portfolio from $1.8 billion when he joined the company in 1986 to more than $12 billion today. The company can be found online at http://www.astoriafederal.com.