Originations

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, fell to 1134.6 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended April 11 from 1246.1 the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications were down 8.8% on the week but up 132.4% from the level recorded a year earlier. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Purchase Index fell from 400.8 to 376.1, and the Refinance Index fell from 6162.8 to 5546.7. Refinancings represented 69.4% of total applications, down from the previous week's 70.3%, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 15.3%. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell from 5.80% to 5.70%, and points (including the origination fee) increased from 1.38 to 1.43 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mbaa.org.

Single-family housing starts rebounded 7.7% in March after a sharp dropoff in February, as demand for new homes appears to be holding up better than expected.The Census Bureau has reported that single-family housing starts rose from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.31 million in February to 1.41 million in March. An economist at the National Association of Home Builders noted that the weather might have played a bigger role in February's decline than originally thought. For the first quarter, single-family housing construction is ahead of last year's pace by 4.1%. "The market may be holding up a little bit better than builders" expected, NAHB economist Michael Carliner said. Permits declined in March and may look a "little soft," he said. But the number of unused permits is up by 20% compared with that of a year ago.

Capital Automotive REIT, McLean, Va., has announced that it outperformed 99.8% of the companies in the S&P SmallCap 600 under a corporate governance ranking system used by Institutional Shareholder Services.The Corporate Governance Quotient assigned to the real estate investment trust also indicated that CARS had outperformed all the companies in the SmallCap 600 real estate group, the REIT said. CARS, a REIT that acquires real property and improvements used by operators of multifranchised automotive dealerships, can be found online at http://www.capitalautomotive.com.

GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp., Horsham, Pa., has provided a $150 million revolving credit facility for Kaplan Cos., Highland Park, N.J.The facility will be used to acquire and develop multifamily properties in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida, GMACCM said. Marc Weinberg, Kaplan's chief operating officer, said GMACCM was selected to provide the facility "because of its ability to provide a single source of funds for multiple transactions with a relatively uniform process." GMACCM can be found on the Web at http://www.gmaccm.com.

Zacks.com, the online unit of Zacks Investment Research Inc., Chicago, has reiterated its #1 Strong Buy ranking of New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif.In its note on the subprime mortgage originator, Zacks said earnings estimates for the company "have been trending higher for several quarters now, and it has been able to meet or exceed predictions each time." Earnings for the company "have been anything but subprime, which has analysts and investors alike taking notice," Zacks said. The ranking was issued in advance of the New Century earnings announcement scheduled for April 17. New Century has already said it will exceed its first-quarter projection of $1.62 per share and meet its full-year 2003 estimate of $7.25 per share. Zacks can be found online at http://www.zacks.com.

Alpha Hospitality Corp. has announced that it is changing the focus of its business, relocating its corporate headquarters, and changing its name to Empire Resorts.To reflect the changes, the company's Nasdaq ticker symbol is changing from ALHY to NYNY as of April 16, the company said. Alpha, which has relocated from Northbrook, Ill., to New York City, said it hopes the changes will help it to cash in on trends in the casino industry. "Our primary mission is to work with our partners, the Cayuga Nation of New York, to complete our goal of opening a casino in the Catskills," said Robert Berman, Alpha's chairman and chief executive officer. New York has passed legislation authorizing three casinos in the Catskills, Alpha said, and the Cayuga Nation is proposing to develop a casino in the area. Alpha said it expects the proposed Cayuga casino to be located closer to New York City than casinos in Connecticut or Atlantic City, N.J. The name change has been approved by shareholders and will become effective May 21, Alpha said.

Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, has reported record net income of $1.49 billion ($0.88 per share) in the first quarter, up 8% from $1.38 billion ($0.80 per share) a year earlier.Wells Fargo's mortgage origination volume totaled $103 billion in the first quarter, the second-highest level in the company's history, and the mortgage pipeline ended the quarter at $89 billion, up 29% from the year-end level, the company said. The owned servicing portfolio totaled $552 billion at March 31. "Since March 31, 2002, the owned servicing portfolio is up $95 billion, the weighted average note for the portfolio has declined 62 basis points to 6.45%, and the value of the residential and commercial mortgage servicing rights has been reduced by over $2.9 billion to $4.2 billion," said Mark Oman, Wells Fargo's group executive vice president for home and consumer finance. The company can be found online at http://www.wellsfargo.com.

Moody's Investors Service has upgraded 12 classes in two commercial mortgage-backed securities deals that were downgraded in September as a result of concerns about terrorism insurance.The affected securities, which were returned to their originally assigned ratings, were classes A-1, A-2, A-2F, X-1, and B of 280 Park Avenue Trust commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-XL280, and classes A-1, A-1F, A-2, A-2F, X, XP, and XC of COMM 2001-J2 Mortgage Trust commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, the rating agency said. Since the passage of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 in November, property owners have been able to buy increased levels of terrorism insurance, Moody's said. Boston Properties Inc., the sponsor of both the 280 Park Avenue property and Citigroup Center (the largest asset in COMM 2001-J2), recently renewed an all-risk property insurance program that includes coverage for terrorist acts, the rating agency said. Moody's can be found on the Web at http://www.moodys.com.

The Detroit law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone is setting up a capital markets lending group for commercial real estate-related transactions.The company has hired James A. Simpson and Katheryne L. Zelenock, previously of e-Cognita Technologies, to lead the venture, the firm said. The new group, which will build on Miller Canfield's existing lending practice, will offer services for lenders "whose portfolios are destined for securitization, including both loan closing and workout or enforcement services." Miller Canfield will install some applications developed by Mr. Simpson and Ms. Zelenock for automating and Web-enabling the process of commercial loan origination, due diligence, and closing. Joseph Wener and Tad Green, two other former e-Cognita employees, are also joining the new group.

Cendant Mortgage Corp., Mt. Laurel, N.J., and the Northern Trust Co., Chicago, have announced an alliance under which Cendant Mortgage will provide residential mortgage processing services on a private-label basis to the clients of Northern Trust's main bank and its federal savings bank affiliate.The banks' clients will continue to obtain mortgage products through their relationship managers and Northern Trust offices. The main bank is located in Illinois, and the FSB operates in several states. The companies can be found online at http://www.cendant.com and http://www.northerntrust.com.

Fannie Mae beat analysts' estimates for the first quarter, reporting net income of $1.94 billion, up 60.5% from the earnings recorded a year earlier.Earnings per share in the first quarter were $1.93, up from $1.17 in the first quarter of 2002. Fannie Mae said its core business earnings totaled $1.85 billion, up 22% from the first quarter of last year, or $1.84 per share. That's 11 cents higher than the consensus estimate of Wall Street analysts. Core earnings, an internal measure used by Fannie Mae, largely exclude the effect of changes to the accounting for interest rate hedging activities.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has signed into law the New Mexico Home Loan Protection Act, after both houses of the state legislature passed the anti-predatory-lending measure.ACORN, a nationwide group lobbying for strict regulation of the subprime mortgage industry, lauded the New Mexico bill as “one of the toughest anti-predatory-lending laws in the country.”

GMAC Mortgage officers told MortgageWire on April 10 that the company intends to create a new brand for mortgage originations on the West Coast within a month.The goal of the new brand, they said, is to reach a customer group which GMAC Mortgage and its subsidiary, Ditech Funding, do not currently reach. They declined to identify a specific target market, and have not yet announced the brand's name.

Host Marriott Corp. has been targeted by Zacks & Co. as a strong sell based on the fact that the company's earnings estimates for this year and next remain at reduced levels from months ago.HMT pointed out that the War in Iraq and the weak economy continue to put pressure on the hotels industry. "Although the fourth quarter saw comparative funds from operations and total revenue advance from the year-earlier period, HMT made it clear that the above-mentioned factors make a recovery for hotels very difficult," Zacks said.

Credit Suisse First Boston executive vice president Zan Hamilton is leaving Wall Street for California-based mortgage banker Platinum Capital, MortgageWire has learned.Mr. Hamilton will be in charge of growing Platinum's wholesale division, particularly in regard to "Alt-A" and subprime mortgages. He is expected to start as president of Platinum on April 21. He replaces Dan Perl who recently left the company. During his career, Mr. Hamilton also has worked at Wilshire Credit in Oregon and done consulting work for Intuit. In another move, Platinum has hired LesLee Delaney to run its wholesale effort in California. Platinum funds mortgages in 45 states. In years past the privately held lender has been mostly a government and conventional funder. The company is trying to diversify its product base as refinancings run their course.

In Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending April 11, 2003, interest rates for fixed-rate loans crept up while rates for ARMs were down slightly.The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.85%, with an average 0.6 point, inching up from 5.79% the previous week. The 15-year FRM averaged 5.17% with an average of 0.6 point, also creeping up from the previous week's average of 5.06%. But one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable rate mortgages were down slightly from the week before, coming in at 3.80% with an average of 0.6 point. That's down from 3.82% the previous week. "With the conflict in Iraq seemingly under control, the financial markets have shifted focus back onto the economy," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist. "And what the markets discovered is that we seem to be in another 'soft spot.'" Freddie Mac's website address is http://www.freddiemac.com.

Precept Mortgage, the commercial mortgage loan origination and online loan auction dot-com that has been seeking business partners, has entered into a 10-year licensing agreement with Cohen Financial.Steve Spayer, director of brand management with the Chicago-based Cohen Financial, told MortgageWire that the agreement with Precept allows Cohen the "exclusive use" of Precept's systems, protocol and people. Cohen is still in the process of re-evaluating Precept's business and it might take another three months before it decides exactly how it is going to use the tie-up. Precept, which was set up in early 2001, was not able to generate sufficient business activity in its primary business lines. Lack of acceptance among commercial mortgage lenders and life insurance companies appears to have been a major stumbling block for the company. Cohen first formed an alliance with Precept in May of 2001, which was supposed to send approximately $5 billion in commercial loans through Precept by 2006. Precept's website address is http://www.preceptmortgage.com. Cohen Financial can be found on the Web at http://www.cohenfinancial.com.

Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft has predicted a slight growth in the mortgage market for 2003, with originations of $2.54 billion.This is slightly ahead of Freddie Mac's 2002 call for the origination market of $2.51 trillion. "Despite a weather-induced dip in housing activity in February, housing starts and home sales appear to have remained brisk during the first quarter. Mortgage rates continue to hover near 40-year lows, which helps to propel the housing market and should set the stage for a robust spring buying season. With low rates and a pick-up in economic growth in the second half of 2003, home sales are expected to break last year's record pace, helping to contribute to the economy's recovery," Mr. Nothaft said. The weaker labor market, he said, increases the likelihood of the Federal Reserve Board further easing interest rates. Freddie Mac believes 30-year fixed rates will average 5.7% through the third quarter before gently rising. Freddie Mac's website address is http://www.freddiemac.com.

Prudential Mortgage Capital Co., the commercial mortgage lending business of Newark-based Prudential Financial, has named Paige Hood, a managing director, the company's new general account portfolio manager.Mr. Hood will be responsible for overseeing the portfolio of mortgages originated for the Prudential Insurance Company of America's general account, Prudential Financial reports. He is taking over from David Stewart, who is retiring. Mr Hood has worked for Prudential for the last 15 years in the areas of loan origination, asset management and credit underwriting. In related personnel changes, Prudential has hired Dale Fathe-Aazam as a principal responsible for overseeing the company's institutional mortgage portfolios for its Prudential Real Estate fixed income investors. Mr. Fathe-Aazam will also serve as the Western region product specialist for the general account, Prudential said. Most recently, Mr. Fathe-Aazam was a managing director for Heller Real Estate Finance in Los Angeles. Also, Marcia Diaz and Michael Jameson, both currently Western regional loan originators, will replace Mr. Hood in overseeing the West Coast generalist origination teams.

John Williams, founder and director of Post Properties, has initiated a proxy effort to elect his nominees to the Atlanta-based multifamily real estate investment trust's board of directors.Mr. Williams - also the REIT's largest shareholder, with ownership of about 7.3% of Post shares outstanding, according to his filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission - has proposed George R. Puskar, Roy E. Barnes, Paul J. Dolinoy, Thomas J.A. Lavin and Jansen Noyes III as nominees for the Post board, in opposition to those proposed by Post's incumbent board. If elected, Mr. Williams' nominees will submit a plan "to raise the quality of corporate governance, improve operating performance and enhance shareholder value," according to Mr. Williams. In response to this development, Moody's Investors Service has placed the ratings of Post Properties "under review for downgrade," citing concerns about the effects of the likely proxy fight on the REIT's "strategic direction and financial profile." The ratings of Post Properties' preferred stock, senior unsecured debt and senior unsecured debt shelf are impacted by the Moody's action. Moody's has had a negative rating outlook on Post since February 2002, the rating agency reports.