Originations

LaSalle Home Mortgage, a Chicago-based division of ABN Amro Mortgage Group, has announced that it will change its name to ABN Amro Mortgage.Mark Sofyanos, senior vice president of LaSalle Home Mortgage, said the name change is "a logical next step" in the extension of the ABN Amro Mortgage name. "As the mortgage industry shifts from one dominated by consumer refinances back to a normalized purchase-focused environment, the importance of ABN Amro Mortgage's retail brand will continue to grow," he said. The parent company, Netherlands-based ABN Amro, can be found online at http://www.abnamro.com.

Simon Property Group and Westfield America have extended their $20-per-share cash offer for Taubman Centers common shares to Oct. 31.The Indianapolis-based retail real estate investment trust and the U.S. subsidiary of the Australia-based Westfield America Trust have extended the offer several times since they began their battle to take over the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Taubman in the third quarter of last year. An amendment to the Michigan Control Share Acquisition Act last month, which would make it possible for the Taubman management and their affiliates to vote their 33%-plus stake to prevent the takeover, has made the Simon/Westfield takeover attempt seem less likely to succeed. The amendment is awaiting the signature of the governor of Michigan.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has announced that it will once again allow loans from Georgia into transactions that it rates.The change is a response to the pre-emption by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency of the assignee liability portion of the Georgia Fair Lending Act for national banks and their subsidiaries. Since the Georgia law was written to allow state-chartered banks and their subsidiaries the same privileges as national ones, S&P will also allow loans originated by these institutions into their pools. This includes high-cost loans, the rating agency said. Earlier restrictions laid out by S&P still apply for originators without national or state banking charters. S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Health Care Property Investors, a real estate investment trust based in Newport Beach, Calif., is acquiring MedCap Properties' interests in 113 office medical office buildings for approximately $575 million.The properties encompass six million square feet and are located in 16 states, with concentrations in Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, and Nashville, Tenn., HCPI said. The acquisition has three facets. HCP Medical Office Portfolio, a joint venture between HCPI and GE Commercial Finance, is initially acquiring 100 of the properties for $460 million, the REIT said. HCPI will have a one-third interest (valued at $153 million) in these facilities, which it will manage. The purchase price includes the assumption of a $26 million mortgage at approximately 7%, and the venture plans to add on more mortgage financing. HCPI will also acquire, upon completion, certain construction projects, including five buildings with an expected total cost of $67 million. Eight of the acquired buildings, valued at $49 million, will be contributed to a joint venture between HCPI and senior MedCap management. MedCap's current organization, including 23 employees, will become part of HCPI, the company said. The REIT can be found online at http://www.hcpi.com.

Fitch Ratings has joined Standard & Poor's Ratings Services in saying that it will continue to rate loan pools containing mortgages from Nevada.The rating agency's Oct. 3 announcement followed the effective date of a new Nevada predatory lending law by two days. While Fitch said it believes that the law will have no effect on the mortgage industry, the rating agency said it may subject high-cost loans to additional credit enhancement. Fitch said it takes this approach for any mortgage designated as high-cost in the jurisdiction where it was originated.

Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Calabasas, Calif., and Starck & Co., a Chicago-area Realtor, have announced the formation of a joint venture that will offer a variety of home financing programs and simplify the process of buying or selling a home.The venture, First Freedom Mortgage, will be an operating division of Countrywide Mortgage Ventures LLC. It will offer more than 130 programs that include zero-downpayment options, fixed- and adjustable-rate loans, and "optimum flexibility" on rates and terms, the companies said. John W. Stewart, Countrywide's executive vice president of strategic business development, said the venture will offer customers one-stop shopping. Andy Starck, chief executive officer of Starck & Co., said customers "can get pre-approved in our offices, saving the time and hassle of seeking pre-qualification and pre-approval elsewhere before coming to us." The companies can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com and http://www.homesbystarck.com.

The director of the banking division of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance says the regulator shouldn't be blamed for the state's new predatory lending law.Speaking at the League of Mortgage Lenders Conference in Atlantic City, N.J., H. Robert Tillman said the department is not responsible for the statute and is not in a position to change the language, either. The regulator is issuing guidance on how it intends to enforce the law, but there are limitations on what it can do because of the court system and other participants in the legal and regulatory process, he said. Mr. Tillman reminded the audience that the law does not replace other statutes they need to be concerned about, such as the Licensed Lender Act and the Criminal Fraud Act.

Mortgage lenders reduced their payrolls by 1,100 full-time employees in August as mortgage rates rose and refinancing applications declined.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released data Oct. 3 showing that employment in the mortgage banker/broker sector fell from 423,200 in July to 422,100 in August. (There is a one-month lag in mortgage employment data due to changes the BLS made to its employment report this spring.) Mortgage rates fell in September, but it is likely that lenders continued to prune their payrolls as they prepare for a sharp drop in originations next year. Over the past 12 months, employment in the mortgage industry has increased by nearly 19%, or 67,600 new hires. Meanwhile, the BLS reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by 57,000 in September -- the first increase in eight months. The nation's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.1%.

Amstar Financial Services Inc., Jupiter, Fla., has reported that its name change from America's Senior to Amstar is now effective, and that its stock is now quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board under the new symbol AMAF.The company said it will continue to use the name America's Senior Financial Services to identify its retail reverse mortgage platform. In addition, the name Jupiter Mortgage will be used for Amstar's retail forward mortgage platform, and Synergy Mortgage Solutions will be used for its wholesale mortgage lending platform.

GMAC Mortgage Corp., Horsham, Pa., has reported the signing of four new credit unions as clients of its mortgage outsourcing services.The credit unions are: Scott Credit Union, Mobile, Ala.; Bay Atlantic Credit Union, Vineland, N.J.; Georgia Coastal Federal Credit Union, Brunswick, Ga.; and Atlantic Greyhound Federal Credit Union, Charleston, W.Va. As the preferred mortgage provider to the four institutions, GMAC Mortgage will offer services to nearly 35,000 credit union members in the four states, the company said.

Seattle-based Washington Mutual is the chosen partner of Earvin "Magic" Johnson and the Johnson Development Corp., whose chain of retail home loan centers for minority neighborhoods was launched Oct. 1 with the opening of the first such shop in New York City's Harlem.At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Mr. Johnson said JDC selected WaMu (after contacting various lenders) for its commitment to underserved minority markets and for its brand. "Everybody knows about Washington Mutual," he said. The five-year partnership marks the launch of the joint "National Urban Homeownership" initiative and the start of an alliance that Mr. Johnson said he hopes "will never end." By the end of 2003, another 14 such centers are scheduled to be opened in Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. WaMu executives said the partnership with JDC stemmed from the idea of coming into the community with "retail-oriented stores" that provide homeownership education and step-by-step guidance through the mortgage process.

Office rents are still falling, though at a declining rate, and a tenants' market is likely to prevail well into next year, according to a report by PNC Real Estate Finance, Pittsburgh.Nicholas Buss, group manager of real estate market research at PNC, said the bottom line is that "we are not out of the woods yet." Mr. Buss, one of the authors of the report, said recovery in the office market will depend on sustained job creation. "The office market faces a tough uphill climb," he said. "The good news is that more of the excesses have been wrung from the system -- tenants have downsized and are lean and mean, rents are close to bottom, and new construction has all but stopped." The report is titled "Myth or Reality: No Worse, No Better, No Hope? Catching Up With the Office Market." The company can be found online at http://webqa.pncrealestatefinance.com.

Reinhard Koester has been promoted to executive vice president and chief risk officer of The PMI Group, Walnut Creek, Calif.Mr. Koester, who joined the mortgage insurer in February, has developed a risk management model for the organization and led a team that produced a strategic plan, PMI said. He was previously a vice president at Goldman, Sachs & Co. PMI can be found on the Web at http://www.pmigroup.com.

Douglas M. Pasquale has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Nationwide Health Properties Inc., Newport Beach, Calif., and is slated to become chief executive officer of the real estate investment trust after a transition period.Mr. Pasquale was most recently president and CEO of Atria Senior Living Group, which was formed in April as a combination of two long-term care companies that were customers of NHP. He will succeed R. Bruce Andrews, who has been president and CEO of NHP since 1989. The REIT can be found online at http://www.nhp-reit.com.

The real estate investment trust sector yielded a total return of 9.3% for the third quarter, according to SNL Financial, a Charlottesville, Va.-based information provider.The SNL Equity REIT Index maintained by the company slightly outperformed the 9.1% return on the Russell 2000, an index made up of small- to medium-capitalization companies, for the period. (Comparative figures for the S&P 500 index were not available by MortgageWire's deadline). Of the various real estate sectors, hotel REITs turned in the best performance, yielding a 16.9% return for the period and breaking "a streak of quarterly declines that lasted since the fourth quarter of 2001," SNL said. Non-REIT hotel companies provided a return of 18.4% for the third quarter. Retail REITs did well, too, with enclosed malls providing a 13.6% return and shopping center REITs 8.5%. Multifamily REITs had a total return of 11.4% for the period, and investors are now looking to rising interest rates as a factor that will favor this sector, SNL said. Office REITs provided the lowest total return, 4.7%, with office owners "facing another year of slow performance until employment picks up decisively."

Private mortgage insurers wrote $34.9 billion of primary new insurance during the month of August, compared with $30.6 billion in July, according to data provided by the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America.The figures for July and August do not include production from The Radian Group Inc., because the Philadelphia-based company withdrew its membership in MICA in a policy dispute. But including Radian, volume totaled $26.9 billion in August 2002. Traditional insurance written in August 2003 was $28.0 billion, down $246 million from July, while bulk policies written increased from $2.37 billion in July to $6.94 billion in August. A bad sign is that application volume was down in August. In July there were 291,678 applications, while in August there were 265,792. (However, that is still strong because in August 2002, with Radian included, the mortgage insurers received just under 5,000 more applications.) New pool risk written totaled $519.3 million in August, up from $387.8 million the previous month. For the first time since February, the cure/default ratio is heading in a positive direction, although defaults still outnumber cures. In August, the ratio was 91.2%, up from 78.5% in July, with 37,714 cures and 41,341 defaults. MICA can be found on the Web at www.micadc.org.

The president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers says that, based on the comments he has heard, guaranteed mortgage packaging would be available to anyone under the Department of Housing and Urban Development's forthcoming RESPA reform proposal.Speaking at the New Jersey League of Mortgage Lenders Conference in Atlantic City, A.W. Pickel said packaging "is going to be like the Wild West" if it is part of HUD Secretary Mel Martinez's proposal to reform the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act. By making packaging available to anyone, "it will open up a huge can of worms," he said. The NAMB still opposes the inclusion of a guaranteed mortgage package in RESPA reform. Lenders can change the terms at the last minute -- based on allowable reasons such as a change in the credit score or an appraisal that came in low -- and the customer would have no idea what makes up the package, he said. Citing communications with HUD staff (including Frank Jimenez, Mr. Martinez's chief of staff), Mr. Pickel discounted reports that the department will announce a rule at the upcoming Mortgage Bankers Association of America convention.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 5.77% for the week ending Oct. 3 from 5.98% the previous week, nearly 70 basis points below its recent high of 6.44% for the week ended Sept. 5, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate fell from 5.30% to 5.10%, and the average rate for one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages declined from 3.77% to 3.72%. Fees and points averaged 0.6 points for all three mortgage categories. "Plummeting consumer confidence in September led markets to believe that the lack of job growth is wearing on the economy," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "That brings about the fear that the lack of growth could trigger another lull in the economy, causing interest rates to tumble this week." A year ago, the average 30-year and 15-year fixed rates were 6.01% and 5.40%, respectively, and the average one-year ARM rate was 4.29%, Freddie Mac said. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

FleetBoston Financial has announced a $30 million education initiative aimed at helping consumers make smarter decisions about their finances, including buying a home."Smarter Decisions with Fleet" is a back-to-basics program that includes a 10-point plan to address "the growing national concern about inadequate financial understanding," the company said. The plan includes, among other things, the development of educational materials on topics such as household budgeting, buying a home or a car, and saving for investment; seminars throughout the Northeast on similar topics; and partnerships with nonprofit and community organizations to provide financial education training and seminars. "Personal debt is rising at nearly double the rate of inflation, the country is flooded with home foreclosures and a record number of personal bankruptcies, and our national savings rate remains at historical lows that are also low relative to those of other industrialized nations," said Anne Finucane, Fleet's chief marketing officer. "The turbulent economy explains part of the problem, but another major part is the erosion in the level of financial understanding." Fleet can be found online at http://www.fleet.com.

Crescent Real Estate Equities Co., Fort Worth, Texas, and Vornado Realty Trust, New York, are looking to disentangle themselves from AmeriCold Logistics, a provider of cold storage facilities.The two real estate investment trusts are seeking to raise medium-term bank financing of over $200 million and have engaged underwriters to explore the additional financing. The REITs said the money will allow them "to make a meaningful reduction of their investment in this business and will provide additional financing for expansion." Atlanta-based AmeriCold is one of the many ventures started by REITs after the REIT Modernization Act was passed in 2000, giving them more leeway in pursuing facilitating activities. Most of these ventures have not met with success. Crescent has a 40% stake in AmeriCold, and Vornado a 60% stake in the business.