Originations

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, Philadelphia, has announced a public offering of 5.5 million shares of common stock at $29.75 per share.PREIT said the net proceeds will total approximately $161 million. The company has granted the underwriters, Lehman Brothers and Citigroup Global Markets, an option to buy up to 825,000 additional shares to cover any overallotments. PREIT can be found online at http://www.preit.com.

Michael H. Sonnabend has been named a principal at AFC Realty Capital, New York, where he will be involved in sourcing, structuring, and funding real estate transactions.Mr. Sonnabend, a 15-year veteran of the real estate financing industry, was most recently senior vice president of Bender & Co. AFC Realty is a real estate investment banking firm.

ICM Capital, a newly formed subsidiary of Independence Community Bank, has been granted Delegated Underwriting and Servicing Lender status by Fannie Mae.The approval will aid Independence Community Bank in expanding its multifamily mortgage business, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based bank said. ICM will now join 26 other DUS lenders from whom Fannie Mae purchases the majority of its multifamily loans, the bank said. Alan Fishman, president and chief executive officer of Independence, said ICM will be "an integral part of the expansion of Independence Community Bank's multifamily lending activities along the East Coast," where it will work closely with Meridian Capital Group, a mortgage brokerage firm. The partners of Meridian are investing in ICM.

More and more people who don't consider themselves telemarketers are actually covered by the provisions of a Federal Trade Commission rule on telemarketing, an FTC representative has told the California Association of Mortgage Brokers annual convention in San Jose, Calif.Katie Harrington-McBride, the director of marketing practices for the FTC, said many of those who are unaware of their potential liability are in the real estate business, including mortgage brokers. The most publicized part of the rule is the Do-Not-Call list. But there are other provisions they need to be aware of, she said. In addition, there is no exemption for small businesses. However, in order to encourage compliance by small businesses, up to five ZIP codes of the Do-Not-Call list can be downloaded free, Ms. Harrington-McBride said.

Capitol Commerce Mortgage, Sacramento, Calif., has ceased funding residential loans and is contemplating filing for bankruptcy protection, sources have confirmed to MortgageWire.Industry executives say the privately held company had been funding at least $4 billion a quarter in home mortgages -- mostly through loan brokers -- and reportedly had been selling loans forward without being properly hedged. The company could not be reached for comment at its Sacramento headquarters or at satellite offices in Houston and Dallas. MW broke the news of the company's closing in its early posting on Monday. CCM is not a subsidiary of a federally insured depository, and had been funding loans using warehouse lines of credit made to it by both banks and Wall Street firms, sources said.

Washington Mutual Inc., Seattle, has received a "#1 Strong Buy" rating from Zacks.com.Zacks noted that WaMu recently reported record earnings for the second quarter and boosted its cash dividend to $0.40 per share. "The company has now increased its cash dividend for 32 consecutive quarters," Zacks said. "Analysts feel that the board's decision to significantly increase the cash dividend reflects the overall strength of their business and capital position as well as management's continued commitment to creating shareholder value." Zacks can be found on the Web at http://www.zacks.com.

LandAmerica Financial Group, Richmond, Va., has announced that its LandAmerica Mortgage Processing service for originators is now available in 25 states and the District of Columbia.The company said it plans to operate soon in seven more states, and eventually across the country. "Many brokers are looking for effective ways to slash costs without reducing the quality of service they provide customers," said Neil Singer, LandAmerica's senior vice president for service integration. He said LandAmerica's processing delivers the services brokers need "faster and more efficiently than most existing back offices." The states where the service is now available are as follows: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The company can be found online at http://www.landam.com.

Class H of GS Mortgage Securities Corp. II's commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1998-C1, has been downgraded from B to CCC by Fitch Ratings.Two other classes in the deal were upgraded, and the ratings on eight other classes were affirmed. Fitch attributed the downgrade to expected losses of approximately $30 million on 11 specially serviced loans.

Martin R. Melone and Keith P. Russell have been appointed independent directors on the board of Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif.Mr. Melone is a recently retired partner of Ernst & Young with nearly 40 years of experience in public accounting and auditing methodology, Countrywide said. Mr. Russell is a retired chairman of Mellon West and a retired vice-chairman of Mellon Financial Corp. who brings more than 20 years of experience in banking. Countrywide said the appointments bring the company's board to 13 members, of which 11 are independent directors.

Telephones weren't being answered at the Manhattan offices of the Mortgage Bankers Association of New York and the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York in the wake of a massive power failure that hit the Northeast Thursday afternoon.With an estimated 40 million Americans losing power, residential loan closings scheduled for Friday, Aug. 15, will presumably be canceled and pushed into the week of Aug. 18. In addition, with some bank, thrift and mortgage offices closed in the affected states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, mortgage applications cannot be filed by consumers. A spokeswoman for the Mortgage Bankers Association of America in Washington said she had not heard of any problems in the affected areas, "but that doesn't mean they don't exist."

The median price of existing homes in California reached a record $369,640 in the second quarter, up 15.5% from the level recorded a year earlier, according to the California Association of Realtors.However, resales were down 3.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 575,910 from 599,060 in the second quarter of 2002, CAR said. The association said its Unsold Inventory Index for existing single-family detached homes stood at 2.3 months in the second quarter, compared with 2.1 months a year earlier. CAR can be found online at http://www.car.org.

Prentiss Properties Trust, Dallas, has priced a public offering of 2.0 million shares of its common stock at $29.90 per share.Prentiss, a real estate investment trust specializing in office property, said the net proceeds of $57.8 million will be used to acquire an unnamed office property that it has under contract for approximately $51 million, as well as to buy additional office properties or to redeem in part an outstanding series of preferred stock. Deutsche Bank Securities, the sole underwriter, has been granted an option to buy up to an additional 300,000 common shares to cover any overallotments, the REIT said.

Criimi Mae, Rockville, Md., has reported a net loss of $3.6 million ($0.24 per share) for the second quarter, compared with net income of $2.3 million ($0.16 per share) a year earlier.The commercial mortgage real estate investment trust attributed the loss primarily to $8.9 million in impairment charges recognized during the period. The company also announced that Mark R. Jarrell has been named president and chief operating officer, effective Sept. 15. Mr. Jarrell has been on the Criimi Mae board since last January. Criimi Mae has also increased the overall expected loss estimate on its subordinated commercial mortgage-backed securities portfolio from $503 million to $559 million. "While our subordinated CMBS continue to generate significant cash and we've made positive progress in resolving loans in special servicing, our ongoing loan review process identified a number of continuing challenges related to our CMBS," said Barry Blattman, Criimi Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. Criimi Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.criimimaeinc.com.

Rodolfo Saenz has been named executive vice president of business development for emerging markets at Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif.Mr. Saenz will be in charge of marketing programs that target ethnic communities, implementing an emerging markets campaign, and overseeing fair housing programs, community outreach efforts, and affordable loan products. Before joining Countrywide, Mr. Saenz held a variety of executive and management positions with Charles Schwab & Co., most recently senior vice president of retail client services. Countrywide can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Two real estate investment trusts have registered their intent with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make initial public offerings of common stock, and another REIT has just made its IPO.McLean, Va.-based Gladstone Commercial Corp. has sold 6.6 million shares at $15 per share for total proceeds of $99 million. (An additional 990,000 shares could be issued to cover overallotments.) The stock began trading on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol GOOD, opening at $15.40. The proceeds from the offering will be used to invest in net-leased industrial and commercial property and make commercial mortgage loans, Gladstone said. The forthcoming IPOs are from First Potomac Realty Trust, a metropolitan Washington-based industrial REIT, and Ashford Hospitality Trust, a Maryland-based lodging financing company that will opt for REIT status following its IPO. The Ashford IPO is expected to raise $402.5 million at an estimated $10 per share. First Potomac's SEC filing does not specify the offer price or number of shares to be offered.

Total existing-home sales (including condominiums and co-operatives) fell only slightly in the second quarter from their record pace in the first quarter, registering a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.69 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors.The second-quarter resales rate was 5.8% higher than the 6.32 million rate of a year earlier, the NAR reported. The biggest year-over-year gains were recorded in Nevada, where the resale rate was up 24.6%; Alaska, up 20.9%; and Missouri, up 17.5%.

For the first time since the reporting began in 1982, the median prices of existing homes increased (on a year-over-year basis) in every metropolitan area for which data were available in the second quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors.The association's metro area home price report found that 40 of the 126 areas surveyed recorded double-digit annual increases in median resale prices. "Normally, even in very strong sales markets, there are about a half-dozen metros somewhere in the country that, for one reason or another, have a temporary price decline," said NAR chief economist David Lereah. "Not only is every market positive, but also a record number of metropolitan areas are experiencing double-digit price gains." The top rates of year-over-year increases in median resale prices were in Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., up 23.5% to $212,600; Providence, R.I., up 23.2% to $228,900; and Los Angeles-Long Beach, up 20.6% to $337,200. The NAR can be found online at http://realtor.org.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.24% for the week ending Aug. 15 from 6.34% the previous week, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate fell from 5.66% to 5.58%, and the average rate for one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages declined from 3.80% to 3.75%. Fees and points averaged 0.7 points for all three mortgage categories. "The bond markets got a little ahead of themselves, causing yields to rise too quickly over the past few weeks," said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist. "This week saw a bit of a correction, and mortgage rates fell for the first time in eight weeks. Continued volatility in financial markets, however, will keep rates teetering up and down for some time to come." A year ago, the average 30-year and 15-year fixed rates were 6.22% and 5.63%, respectively, and the average one-year ARM rate was 4.39%, Freddie Mac said. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Sales of existing single-family homes in Florida totaled 55,197 in the second quarter, 10% higher than resales a year earlier, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.The median sales price of homes sold in the second quarter hit $154,700, up 10% from $140,300 in the second quarter of 2002, FAR reported. Among the state's larger metropolitan statistical areas, resales increased 28% in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, 8% in Orlando, and 4% in Fort Lauderdale, FAR said.

AvalonBay Communities Inc., Alexandria, Va., has priced a public offering of 2.75 million shares of common stock at $46 per share.The real estate investment trust said the net proceeds of approximately $124.7 million will be used for general corporate purposes. The underwriter, Morgan Stanley & Co., has been granted an option to buy up to an additional 412,500 shares to cover any overallotments. The REIT can be found online at http://www.avalonbay.com.