Originations

Impac mortgage Holdings, currently trading on the American Stock Exchange, is transferring its stock listing to the New York Stock Exchange.The company, which will continue to trade under the symbol IMH, will begin trading on the NYSE on June 11. Joseph Tomkinson, chairman and CEO of Impac, said moving to the NYSE "will increase our visibility, attract new investors, and ultimately lower the company's cost of capital while providing additional liquidity to our investors." Impac Mortgage Holdings is a REIT that engages in long term investment operations, mortgage operations and warehouse lending operations with a focus on Alt-A loans.

GE Commercial Finance and Health Care Property Investors have formed a $600 million joint venture, HCP Medical Office Portfolio, to acquire medical office buildings nationwide.The venture will be funded by both the companies, Stamford, Conn.-based GE Commercial Finance, a General Electric company, reports. The venture hopes to capitalize on the need for hospitals and health care systems to free up the money they have in real estate holdings. Mike Neal, president and CEO, GE Commercial Finance, said, "We saw an opportunity to expand our offerings in the growing healthcare arena. The combination of the nation's top healthcare real estate investment trust and our comprehensive financing abilities will be a strong one." And the Newport Beach, Calif.-based HCPI sees the joint venture as an opportunity to provide "a superior financial alternative for our healthcare customers."

The BBB-minus ratings of Chateau Communities Inc., Greenwood Village, Colo., and a subsidiary have been placed on CreditWatch with negative implications by Standard & Poor's.S&P said the actions were related to the announcement that Hometown America LLC, a privately-held Chicago-based owner and operator of manufactured housing communities, has agreed to acquire Chateau, a real estate investment trust that is the largest owner/operator of MH communities in the United States. "The lack of information regarding Hometown America aside, Chateau's ratings would likely be lowered below investment-grade based on the significant challenges that any smaller company would have integrating Chateau's sizable portfolio," the rating agency said. The CreditWatch placement also affects CP LP, a Chateau subsidiary. S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Burnham Insurance Group of Battle Creek, Mich., will use London Bridge's BridgeLink network to provide flood determination services to London Bridge customers.London Bridge said the connectivity will allow flood requests to be automatically routed to Burnham's flood system and results posted back without re-keying data. Burnham's relies on GeoLogix, Placerville, Calif., as its flood determination partner."

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, which created a federal government backstop for terrorism insurance, has not increased terrorism insurance coverage at reasonable prices according to a report from Moody's Investors Service.However, the rating agency finds that prices have "abated somewhat" from the heights to which they rose in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Based on a survey of U.S. primary insurers, the rating agency reports that as of April 2003, few insurance carriers were offering coverage of domestic acts of terrorism (which are not covered by the TRIA) or selling "stand-alone" terrorism policies. Also, the rating agency found that no insurer is offering "broad coverage of nuclear, biological, or chemical acts of terrorism." James Bartie, a vice president/senior analyst with Moody's property & casualty and reinsurance group, said, "Overall, the act does not yet seem to have increased the availability of terrorism insurance coverage at prices that most buyers would view as reasonable." He added that some insurers have quoted "extremely high prices for some types of risk" to discourage policyholders from getting the coverage in cities that are considered "highly vulnerable" to future attacks. The rating agency is also concerned that some insurers are viewing the TRIA as a "substitute for sound risk management."

The Eleventh Federal Home Loan District Cost of Funds Index for April is 2.208%, virtually unchanged from the previous month.The index for March, as calculated by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco was 2.210%. COFI is known as a lagging indicator and movements in interest rates taking place now will show up in the index some three-to-six months later. The flattening between March and April reflects rate moves several months ago. The index is a weighted average of the interest paid by thrifts in Arizona, California and Nevada on their various sources of funds to originate mortgages, including deposits.

Fannie Mae chief economist David Berson has once again upped his origination estimates for 2003 as mortgage rates continue to decline to record low levels.His new estimate of $3.7 trillion tops one he made in March of $3.3 trillion. He noted that purchase money applications (according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America) jumped to record high levels in May, while refinancing applications are reaching the all-time highs they hit in early March. "We expect long-term rates to stay low for a while -- the Fed is unlikely to begin tightening monetary policy until next year and core inflation will probably drift still lower -- suggesting that mortgage applications should not fall significantly in the near-term," Mr. Berson said in his Weekly Commentary posted on Fannie Mae's web site. For 2004, he predicts a decline in the market of 45% to a "still strong $2.0 trillion."

Brookfield Properties Corp., New York, has announced senior management changes in its U.S. and Canadian operations.Dennis Friedrich, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Brookfield's U.S. commercial operations, has been named president of the operations as of June 30. David Arthur, president and chief executive officer of Brookfield's Canadian commercial operations, will be leaving the company to join Brascan Corp., Brookfield said. As a result, Steve Douglas will become president of the Canadian operations effective June 30 and will remain as chief financial officer as well. Tom Farley, senior vice president for Western Canada, will become executive vice president and COO of Canadian operations. Brookfield, which owns, develops, and manages North American office properties, can be found on the Web at http://www.brookfieldproperties.com.

Two series of Illinois Health Facilities Authority revenue bonds issued on behalf of Bethesda Home and Retirement Center have been downgraded from A-minus to BBB by Fitch Ratings.The affected securities are approximately $3.5 million of series 1999A revenue bonds and approximately $100,000 of series 1999B taxable revenue bonds, Fitch said. The rating outlook is Stable. The downgrades reflect the facility's "diminished profitability," its failure to meet the required debt service coverage set forth in its covenant, and concerns about future financial performance in view of its focus on nursing homes and recent declines in occupancy, the rating agency said. "The lack of investment income, as well as reduced census, negatively affected financial results in fiscal 2002 and reflect the volatility inherent in a small revenue base," Fitch said. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Interstate Hotels & Resorts, a hotel management company based in Washington, D.C., and Northridge Capital Inc., a D.C.-based real estate investment firm, have announced the formation of a hospitality fund to acquire up to $400 million of hotel assets.The fund will target upscale full-service properties -- and selected premium-branded limited-service properties -- in key urban and suburban markets that "have strong investment potential and that can benefit from Interstate's proven repositioning and turnaround programs," the companies said. The joint venture will be funded on an approximately 50-50 basis with equity and secured debt. Northridge will contribute up to $45 million of the equity, Interstate up to $5 million, and up to $150 million will come from outside investors, the companies said. "We are beginning to see some positive movement in hotel real estate pricing and feel that properties are starting to become more attractively priced," said John Emery, Interstate's president and chief operating officer. ".... We currently have more than $40 million invested in hotel real estate, and the partnership with Northridge represents an opportunity to significantly increase that investment." Interstate can be found online at http://www.ihrco.com.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Irvine, Calif., has filed a "Master Lien Protection Loan Policy of Title Insurance" with the California Department of Insurance.The company said this is the first "pool" title insurance policy offered by a title insurer. Coverage for the lender is from a master policy, with individual certificates issued each time a loan closes. "If a lender is willing to self-insure portions of the title coverage risk and does not intend to sell the loans into the secondary market, this Lien Protection Policy product may satisfy their underwriting needs at a significant savings in premium," said William P. Foley II, chairman and chief executive officer of FNF. Pricing starts as low as $275 per transaction. The policy is not conditioned on the creditworthiness of the borrower. FNF can be found online at http://www.fnf.com.

The amount of primary new private mortgage insurance written in April totaled $30.9 billion, down 29% from March's record $43.3 billion, according to the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America.For traditional primary new insurance written, April's $26.4 billion was down only 7% from March's $28.3 billion. The biggest reason for the drop was a near 70% falloff in the volume of bulk new insurance, from just under $15 billion in March to $4.5 billion one month later. Application volume dropped only slightly, around 6%, to 309,509 in April -- still the second-best month under MICA's revised data definitions. New pool risk written was $1.1 billion, up over 200% from March's $370.3 million. For the third consecutive month, cures topped defaults, 46,882 vs. 45,098, for a ratio of 104.0%. MICA can be found online at http://www.micanews.com.

Two owners and operators of manufactured housing communities --Hometown America LLC, Chicago, and Chateau Communities Inc., Greenwood Village, Colo. -- have announced a merger pact under which Hometown will acquire Chateau in a transaction valued at about $2.2 billion.Under the definitive agreement, Hometown will buy all the outstanding common shares and units of Chateau for $29.25 per share (or unit) in cash, a premium of approximately 16% over the closing price on May 28, the companies said. In addition to paying the approximately $1 billion equity value of the roughly 35 million common shares and units, Hometown will also assume Chateau's net debt and preferred stock of approximately $1.2 billion. "Chateau Communities has a high-quality portfolio of properties and offers a strong presence in markets we find attractive," said Rich Cline, Hometown's chief executive officer. Chateau, a real estate investment trust, is the largest owner/operator of MH communities in the United States, and Hometown is one of the largest private owners of such communities and one of the top 10 operators, according to the companies.

FiNet.com Inc., San Francisco, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Monument Mortgage Inc., have filed separate petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.FiNet also announced the appointment of Harry R. Kraatz as chairman and chief executive officer, replacing L. Daniel Rawitch. Mr. Kraatz has assisted the companies for several weeks in the capacity of chief restructuring officer, FiNet said. The law firm of Manasian & Rougeau LLP has been retained as reorganization counsel. The companies said they plan to use cash, revenue generated from certain business activities, asset sales, and post-petition financing to finance their operations and "seek business relationships that will enable the companies to benefit from their mortgage assets, the companies' $112 million net operating losses, and FiNet's status as a public company." FiNet is a financial services holding company, and Monument Mortgage provides traditional and online mortgage services to lenders, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and consumers. FiNet can be found on the Web at http://www.finet.com.

Values for luxury homes rose in Los Angeles but dropped in San Francisco and San Diego during the first quarter, according to First Republic Bank.Los Angeles area values rose 4.5% from the previous quarter, reaching levels not seen since 1992. San Francisco values fell 1.9% from the fourth quarter of 2002, and San Diego values dropped 2.3% for the same period. Values in these two markets were still higher, however, than in the first quarter of last year, by 3.0% and 0.8%, respectively.

Colonial Properties Trust, Birmingham, Ala., has agreed to sell 2.11 million common shares to Merrill Lynch & Co. in a public offering.The company said the estimated net proceeds of approximately $72.5 million will be used to repay a portion of its line of credit and to develop, redevelop, and acquire properties. Colonial Properties, a real estate investment trust that owns multifamily, office, and retail properties in the South and in Texas, can be found on the Web at http://www.colonialprop.com.

Real estate companies will need to carry out aggressive cost-containment programs over the next 12 months as a result of regulatory changes and other factors, according to a report from Deloitte & Touche, a New York-based professional services firm.Dennis Yeskey, national managing director of the firm's real estate capital markets practice, said real estate companies are "caught in a classic squeeze" that requires lower operating expenses and stronger tenant relationships. "We see some tough challenges for 2003 and beyond," Mr. Yeskey said. "For one thing, most real estate companies have yet to put in place the organizational structures and processes needed to comply with new regulations for corporate governance and financial reporting, including new rules for consolidating real estate partnerships and recording the sale of a building." The annual report, titled "Real Estate Capital Markets: Top Ten Issues," also advises investors to consider how long real estate prices will stay high while "the underlying economics of buildings deteriorate." The company can be found online at http://www.deloitte.com.us.

Anne Arvia, president of ShoreBank Corp., has been promoted to chief executive officer of the Chicago-based community development and environmental bank.In her new capacity, Ms. Arvia will lead the efforts of ShoreBank's Chicago and Detroit banking operations, the bank said. Among its community development activities, ShoreBank provides multifamily, commercial, and single-family mortgage loans. The bank can be found on the Web at http://www.shorebank-online.com.

Mortgage industry veteran Joseph P. Bryant has been hired as chief operating officer of Paragon Financial Corp., a residential mortgage lender based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.Over the past 20 years, Mr. Bryant has served as president or in other executive posts with the mortgage subsidiaries of such companies as GE Capital, Prudential Insurance Co. of America, Travelers, Long Island Savings Bank, and Roslyn Savings Bank, Paragon said. He was also a principal in a privately held mortgage banking company, served on the board of directors of American Home Mortgage Holdings, and was a member of the board of governors of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. "His extensive personal relationships and incredibly diverse mortgage industry experience greatly enhance our industry credibility, and he's exactly who we need to thoroughly evaluate acquisition opportunities for long-term stability and profitability," said Steve Burleson, Paragon's chief executive officer.

The ratings on six classes of Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Corp.'s commercial mortgage pass-through certificates series 2000-1 have been lowered by Standard & Poor's.The ratings were lowered as follows: class G, from BB-plus to BB; class H, from BB to BB-minus; class I, from BB-minus to B-plus; class J, from B to CCC-plus; class K, from B-minus to CCC; and class L, from CCC-plus to CCC-minus. S&P also affirmed the ratings on seven other classes in the deal. The rating agency said the lowered ratings reflect potential losses from one real-estate-owned loan and three loans in special servicing. The largest loan, secured by a 396,022-square-foot retail center in Pembroke Pines, Fla., totals $41.9 million (6.1% of the pool balance) and has been in REO status since February 2002, the rating agency said. Standard & Poor's can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.