Originations

The insurer financial strength rating of GE Mortgage Insurance Corp., Raleigh, N.C., has been downgraded from AAA to AA by Fitch Ratings in the wake of an announcement by GEMICO that it would reduce its capital levels.The rating "reflects an assessment of GEMICO on a stand-alone basis and assumes that capital in excess of that required to meet Fitch's 'AA' stress test requirements will ultimately be dividended out of the company," the rating agency said. GEMICO said it decided to operate its domestic business at capital levels consistent with double-A credit ratings after a strategic review and analysis of its business and capital structure. "In today's competitive market, it simply makes sense for us to use our capital as efficiently as possible," said Tom Mann, president and chief executive officer of GEMICO. "By operating at the 'AA/Aa2' capital levels that prevail in the industry, we can free excess capital to improve our return on equity while aggressively filling the needs of our lenders, investors, and the low-downpayment market." The move will leave United Guaranty Corp., Greensboro, N.C., as the industry's only triple-A rated mortgage insurer. GEMICO can be found online at http://www.gemortgageinsurance.com.

Chase Ventures Holdings Inc., Edison, N.J., and Prudential California Realty, Pleasanton, Calif., have entered into an alliance that combines professional real estate services and mortgage lending operations under one roof.The strategy behind the newly created Home Loan Group LP is to expand company outreach to emerging markets in the West Coast marketplace and beyond. Jim Panepinto, CVH president and chief executive officer, says the alliance will profit from bringing together "two powerful, recognized and trusted brands" and the convenience of bundled services. "From the residential real estate business perspective, this is a very significant moment," said Ed Krafchow, president and chairman of the tri-state consortium of PCR, which includes Prudential Nevada Realty and Prudential Texas Properties. "We believe this is the first time that a real estate company is really trying to closely partner with a financial services organization in the presentation of customer service."

LaSalle Hotel Properties, Bethesda, Md., has announced a public offering of $25 million of series B cumulative redeemable preferred shares.The shares have a fixed distribution rate of 8.375% per year. Raymond James & Associates was the sole underwriter of the offering. LaSalle, a real estate investment trust, can be found online at http://www.lasallehotels.com.

Anthracite Capital, New York, has reported that it is expecting a loss per share of $0.40 to $0.52 for the third quarter, which it attributed to the effect of recent interest rate fluctuations on its residential mortgage-backed securities, and to losses associated with downsizing its RMBS portfolio.The commercial mortgage real estate investment trust said it plans to speed up its "strategic reduction in RMBS" to reduce its earnings volatility. "We expect the allocation to RMBS to represent less than 25% of our total portfolio within the next few quarters, and our portfolio going forward is expected to reflect our longstanding intention to be primarily a holder of credit-sensitive commercial real estate assets," said Hugh Frater, Anthracite's president and chief executive officer. The REIT expects to pay out a dividend of $0.28 per share for the third quarter, compared with $0.35 per share for the second quarter. The REIT had reported a loss of $0.26 per share for the second quarter.

Class N of Morgan Stanley Capital I Inc.'s commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1999-CAM1, has been downgraded from CCC to C by Fitch Ratings.The rating agency attributed the action to expected losses on a specially serviced loan on an office property in Mountain View, Calif., that is more than 90 days delinquent. "The property became 100% vacant in August 2002 when the sole tenant, Global Workplaces, vacated the property and rejected its lease in bankruptcy," Fitch said.

Bill Shuler has been named chief information officer at GMAC Mortgage Corp., Horsham, Pa., where he will be responsible for leading the development of information technology initiatives.The company said its acting CIO, Mike Amble, has resumed his position as chief technology officer. Mr. Shuler was previously senior vice president and CIO of National City Mortgage, executive vice president and CIO of AccuBank Mortgage, and a vice president at Ryland Mortgage Co. GMAC Mortgage can be found on the Web at http://www.gmacmortgage.com.

W. Kimball Griffith has been named director of multifamily affordable housing at Freddie Mac.He will be responsible for the development, marketing, and operation of Freddie Mac's public finance and tax-exempt bond credit enhancement activities, the government-sponsored enterprise said. Mr. Griffith was previously a partner at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP in Washington, D.C., and he has "extensive experience" in commercial real estate, multifamily housing bond financing, and derivative financing structures, Freddie Mac said.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 5.98% for the week ending Sept. 26 from 6.01% the previous week, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate was unchanged, at 5.30%, and the average rate for one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages declined from 3.81% to 3.77%. Fees and points averaged 0.6 points for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages and ARMs and 0.5 points for 15-year FRMs. "Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates this week dropped below 6% for the first time in eight weeks, as investors in bond markets were calmed by assurances from Fed monetary policymakers that no action would be taken until 2004 to raise the federal funds rates," said Amy Crews-Cutts, Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist. A year ago, the average 30-year and 15-year fixed rates were 5.99% and 5.41%, respectively, and the average one-year ARM rate was 4.22%, Freddie Mac said. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Sales of new single-family homes rose 3.4% in August from the revised July sales level, which was the only sales dip in the past four months.The U.S. Census Bureau reported that new-home sales climbed from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.11 million units in July to 1.15 million in August. The rate was up 12.2% from 1.025 million units in August 2002, and new-home sales so far this year are running 11.6% ahead of last year's pace, according to the bureau. The median sales price of new homes sold in August stood at $184,500, and the average sales price was $237,500. The Census Bureau's construction statistics can be found online at http://www.census.gov/const/www/index.html.

Existing-home sales rose 5.5% in August to set a record for the second consecutive month, reaching a level more than 20% higher than that of a year earlier.The National Association of Realtors reported that resales of single-family homes climbed from a revised seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.13 million units in July to 6.47 million in August. The resales rate was up 21.8% from 5.31 million in August 2002. "Some of the home sales closed in August were negotiated in June when mortgage interest rates hit record lows," NAR chief economist David Lereah said. "Much of the remaining portion of sales reflect quick decisions to make offers in July when interest rates began to rise sharply." The NAR can be found online at http://realtor.org.

Health Care REIT, Toledo, Ohio, has priced an offering of 3.2 million shares of common stock at $30.25 per share.The net proceeds will be used to invest in additional health care properties, the REIT said. The joint book-running managers for the offering were Deutsche Bank Securities and UBS Investment Bank. The underwriters have been granted a 30-day option to buy up to 480,000 additional shares to cover any overallotments. The REIT can be found online at http://www.hcreit.com.

The ratings on three classes of J.P. Morgan Commercial Mortgage Finance Corp.'s mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1997-C5, have been lowered by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.The downgrades were as follows: class F, from BB to B-plus; class G, from B-minus to CCC-plus; and class H, from CCC-plus to D. S&P also raised the ratings on three classes in the deal and affirmed the ratings on three others. The rating agency attributed the downgrades to expected credit support erosion upon the disposition of some specially serviced assets (especially industrial, multifamily, and lodging assets); concerns about certain loans on the servicer's watchlist (especially health care assets); continuing interest shortfalls to class H; and the susceptibility of class G to future interest shortfalls. S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Rex H. Lau has been promoted to vice president and key account manager at Triad Guaranty Insurance Corp., a mortgage insurer based in Winston-Salem, N.C.Triad said Mr. Lau, who has held the position of key account manager since April 2001, will be responsible for sales and business development of strategic accounts in Triad's Northwest region. He was previously employed in Washington state by several companies, including First Horizon Equity Lending, Accubanc Mortgage Corp., First Union Mortgage Corp., and Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. Triad is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triad Guaranty Inc., which can be found online at http://www.triadguaranty.com.

Marta McCall has been named senior vice president for risk management by American Mortgage Network, a San Diego-based wholesale mortgage bank.She will be responsible for quality assurance, compliance file audits, broker monitoring, and vendor management, among other things, AmNet said. Ms. McCall was previously the principal of the McCall & Associates consulting firm. She is the chairperson of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's National Quality Assurance Committee. AmNet, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Residential Investment Trust Inc., can be found online at http://www.amnetmortgage.com.

CBL & Associates, Chattanooga, Tenn., has formed a joint venture with Galileo America REIT, the U.S. affiliate of the Australian Galileo America Shopping Trust, to invest in shopping centers in the United States.CBL is contributing a 90% stake in its interests in 51 "power" and community shopping centers to the venture for total consideration of about $516 million, the real estate investment trust said. CBL will retain a 10% stake in the joint venture. CBL said it expects to use the net cash proceeds of about $387 million from the property contributions to invest in new developments, future mall acquisitions, and other retail properties. The joint venture is assuming about $99 million of existing debt on 10 of the properties, and CBL will retire $53 million in loans associated with two of the properties. The venture is also obtaining debt financing of about $160 million in connection with the transaction. CBL said it will manage all the Galileo properties in the United States for a fee. The retail REIT can be found online at http://www.cblproperties.com.

Growth in home equity wealth has driven consumption spending among Americans over the past few years, Freddie Mac's chief economist told an audience of mortgage originators, real estate professionals, and financial planners Sept. 23.Frank Nothaft said most economists expected a retrenchment in consumption spending in the past couple of years, but that it didn't happen because of home equity wealth, which is the value of housing minus the outstanding single-family mortgage debt. Home equity wealth now stands at $7.7 trillion, an increase of $2 trillion over the past two years, Mr. Nothaft said at a Woodbury, N.Y., meeting sponsored by Mortgage Warehouse, a retail lender based in Melville, N.Y., and its affiliate Vertical Lend. Families, he said, regard home equity wealth gains as "more permanent" than wealth gained through stock market investments. Therefore, people were more willing to put these gains back into the economy, Mr. Nothaft said.

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, fell to 699.6 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended Sept. 19 from 726.7 the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications were down 4.2% on the week. The Purchase Index decreased from 432.4 to 402.1 on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the Refinance Index fell from 2438.5 to 2429.7. Refinancings represented 51.9% of total applications, up from 49.9% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 22.7%. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell from 5.91% to 5.85%, and points (including the origination fee) decreased from 1.32 to 1.29 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mbaa.org.

Heritage Property Investment Trust, Boston, is acquiring a portfolio of eight retail properties from Trademark Property Co. for approximately $160 million.The primarily grocery-anchored properties -- four of which are located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, three in the Houston area, and one in Jackson, Miss. -- are 93% leased, Heritage said. The REIT said the acquisition will provide geographical diversification to its portfolio as well as "provide a platform for future expansion throughout the Southwest." Heritage expects to fund the acquisition through the assumption of existing mortgage debt on the properties, the use of its line of credit, and by taking on more debt. The total gross leasable area of the properties is approximately 1.2 million square feet, the REIT said.

Classes M and N of GMAC Commercial Mortgage Securities Inc. series 2000-C1 have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.Fitch said the rating actions were due to potential losses associated with certain loans of concern. The rating agency said it was gathering information on these loans, including specially serviced loans, and will revisit the ratings in the next few weeks.

Two classes of Asset Securitization Corp.'s commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1996-D3, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings.The downgrades were as follows: class B-2, from B to CCC; and class B-3, from CCC to C. In addition, the ratings on eight other classes of the same series were affirmed. Fitch attributed the downgrades to continuing deterioration in the pool's collateral performance, including expected losses on delinquent loans and interest shortfalls on subordinate classes. Realized losses have totaled $15.5 million so far, the rating agency said.