Originations

State Street Global Advisors, Boston, has launched an exchange-traded fund based on the WilshireReal Estate Investment Trust Index. Like mutual funds, ETFs are based on pooledmoney from investors, but they are traded throughout the day on an exchange -- in this case, The American StockExchange, under the symbol RWR. SSGA said it will act as the investment manager of the Wilshire REIT Fund, andthe Tuckerman Group, SSGA's real estate investment unit, will act as the sub-advisor. The fund is part of the streetTracksSeries Trust introduced last September by SSGA, which is the investment management group of State Street Corp.The company's website addresses are http://www.ssga.com and http://www.streettracks.com.

Criimi Mae is slated to emerge from bankruptcy today after the key parties to the company's Chapter11 proceeding reached an agreement to fund the company's re-capitalization. In the motion filed Friday,April 13 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland, Greenbelt Division, the parties saidthat they have finalized and signed the documents needed to fund the Rockville, Md.-based Criimi's capitalizationplan. Also, the parties "plan to sign the miscellaneous closing documents, disburse the funds and consummatethe effective date of the plan on or before Tuesday, April 17." The motion indicated that the signed fundingdocuments include a repurchase agreement, an intercreditor agreement and two senior secured note indentures. Theparties to the motion are Criimi Mae, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Criimi Mae, Merrill LynchMortgage Capital, and German American Capital Corporation.

Irwin Financial Corp., Columbus, Ind., has reported net income of $35.7 million ($1.67 per share)in 2000, up from $33.2 million ($1.51 per share) in 1999. Net income at its homeequity subsidiary, Irwin Home Equity Corp., totaled $18.5 million, up from $12.6 million in 1999. However, netincome for the company's mortgage banking subsidiary, Irwin Mortgage Corp., fell to $13.0 million in 2000, down44% from $23.1 million in 1999, the company reported. Mortgage loan originations totaled $4.1 billion for the year,down 30% from $5.9 billion in 1999. Irwin Mortgage's website address is http://www.irwinmortgage.com, and Irwin Home Equity's is http://www.ihe.com.

American Residential Investment Trust, a Del Mar, Calif., real estate investment trust that investschiefly in nonconforming residential mortgage assets, has reported a net loss of $6.2 million ($0.77 per share)for 2000, compared with a net loss of 43.9 million ($0.48 per share) for 1999. TheREIT reported a net loss of $566,000 ($0.07 per share) for the fourth quarter. "Although short-term operatingincome suffered because the size of the portfolio has decreased, we believe our strategy to become a mortgage originatorwill provide new sources of revenue," said John M. Robbins Jr., the company's chairman and chief executiveofficer. The REIT's website address is http://www.amerreit.com.

Green Park Financial, Bethesda, Md., has originated loans totaling $212 million to finance the purchaseof 19 properties by Westdale Asset Management, a Dallas real estate management company. The properties, purchased from Glenborough Real Estate Investment Trust, are located in Texas, Georgia,and Arizona, Green Park said. The company, a Fannie Mae-approved lender, said the loans are to be securitized asFannie Mae-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities. "By combining our access to capital and processing capabilitywith our correspondents' precise knowledge of local markets, we are able to effectively execute a broad range oftransactions," said Herman E. Bulls, Green Park's executive vice president and chief operating officer. GreenPark is a joint venture between Walker & Dunlop, Washington, D.C., and SunAmerica, an AIG company.

Affinity Technology Group Inc., Columbia, S.C., has announced the settlement of its lawsuit againstThe Dime Savings Bank of New York. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed becauseof a confidentiality clause in the settlement. Back in April, Affinity filed a lawsuit against Dime Savings andHudson United Bancorp., Mahwah, N.J., in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. Thelawsuit arises out of the company's contract with The Dime relating to the development of a system to process andautomate decisioning of automobile loans. Affinity had alleged breach of contract by The Dime and intentional interferencewith the contract by Hudson United. Dime and Hudson United had an agreement to merge at that time, but the dealcollapsed in the wake of a competing hostile offer by North Fork Bank, Melville, N.Y.

Lead generator Data Warehouse Corp., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Atlanta-based credit reporting agencyEquifax have signed an agreement that provides credit-qualified leads to mortgage originators who offer firm offersof credit. Under the agreement, Data Warehouse will integrate its proprietarymortgage database with the individual credit information generated by Equifax. Data Warehouse president BenjaminWaldshan said that, by offering lead identification solutions based on an individual's credit data, the two companies'combined technology will allow for "more accurate targeting" than [that of] competitors, who generallyprovide credit information "summarized at a ZIP-code or other geographical level." The agreement willallow Data Warehouse to reduce its lead delivery time to its customer base of small to midsize mortgage originatorsto one week or less.

Precept, Oakland, Calif., has announced the development of a commercial mortgage origination systemand said it has started accepting deals. Precept is an exchange designed for brokers, mortgage lenders, and borrowers.Both Standard & Poor's and Morgan Stanley have made investments in Precept,the company said. Morgan Stanley has agreed to act as a "market maker," effectively ensuring that therewill be bids on certain types of loans. S&P has approved Precept's underwriting process and agreed to providean independent assessment of underwritten cash flow for loans auctioned on the system. The company's website addressis http://www.preceptmortgage.com.

Tidalwave Holdings Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has announced an intensified effort to acquire amortgage company that has approvals from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Tidalwavepresident Leon Kline said the company wants to add a division that originates conforming loans, with the aim ofbuilding a long-term servicing portfolio. "Our Investment Mortgage Banking Division, First American MortgageSecurities, has the ability to retain servicing on pools that are currently being bid on a servicing-released basis,"Mr. Kline said. "First American Mortgage Securities management feels that it can immediately provide a conformingdivision with a dramatic increase in per-month originations, where we can retain the servicing." He said theideal acquisition would be a small agency-approved mortgage company that uses a subservicer and whose managementwants to stay on. The company's website address is http://www.tidalwaveholdings.com.

Charter One Financial, Cleveland, has agreed to acquire Alliance Bancorp, the holding company forLiberty Federal Bank, Hinsdale, Ill., in a deal valued at $245 million. The transactionwill use the purchase method of accounting. Charter One already has a presence in the Chicago area through itslate 1999 acquisition of St. Paul Federal Bank. It still uses the St. Paul name in the Chicago area. Accordingto the Mortgage Industry Sourcebook 2001, Liberty Federal isthe nation's 208th-largest home improvement lender, with volume of $13.9 million. It is also the nation's 75th-largestmultifamily lender, with volume of $73.9 million. Charter One finished 1999 as the nation's 39th-largest residentialoriginator, with volume of $5.7 billion.

Unity Bancorp, Clinton, N.J., has sold $43 million of home equity loans to an undisclosed purchaser. The proceeds from the loan sale will fund the sale of deposits connected with the sale of six of the bank'sbranches. Unity is selling five branches with $45 million in deposits to SI Bank & Trust for a premium of 6.5%.The other branch is being sold to Hilltop Community Bank for an 11.15% premium. The loan sales and gains from thebranch sales should bring Unity to a 6% equity-capital-to-assets ratio as required by its regulator, the New JerseyCommissioner of Banking and Insurance.

The AFS Title Search Index inched up to 126.8 for the week ended Oct. 6 from 126.7 the previousweek, according to Mortgage Information Corp.'s Advance Factor Services. A yearago the index stood at 122.9, 97% of the current level. "Recent marginally lower interest rates are probablygiving the AFSTSX additional buoyancy as housing turnover decelerates," said AFS director Paul Descloux. "Whentaking into account transaction costs, whether financed by the mortgage or not, most mortgagors still see no realoption value on a strictly term basis, probably all the way up to 8.5 percent." Mr. Descloux's e-mail addressis paul.descloux@loanperformance.com.

Mortgage applications fell 4.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended Oct. 6, according to the MortgageBankers Association of America's weekly Mortgage Application Survey. On an unadjustedbasis, applications were down 3.9% on the week and up 15.0% from the level recorded a year ago. On a seasonallyadjusted basis, the Purchase Index fell from 320.4 the previous week to 302.8; the Refinancing Index was up from470.6 to 475.0; the Conventional Index decreased from 417.6 to 408.4; and the Government Index declined from 217.1to 193.9. Refinancings represented 21.8% of total applications, up from 20.7% the previous week, while adjustable-ratemortgages accounted for 14.5%, up from 13.7%. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgageswas 7.87%, up from 7.80% the previous week, while points (including the origination fee) fell from 1.18 to 1.15for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA's website address is http://www.mbaa.org.

Gold Banc, Leawood, Kan., is taking a $17.7 million writeoff in its fourth quarter earnings as aresult of shutting down its mortgage banking subsidiary, Regional Investment Co., Kansas City. Gold Banc purchased the subsidiary last year, but the mortgage company has not met performance expectations.Regional lost $1 million in the third quarter, and $1.5 million over the first nine months of 2000. It originatesloans in 17 states. Michael W. Gullion, chairman and chief executive of Gold Banc, said rising interest rates andgrowing consumer confidence in shopping for rates online have reduced profit opportunities. "These trendshave led us to conclude that the net branch concept of mortgage origination does not fit the Gold concept of communitybanking," he said. The bank will concentrate on making mortgage loans in its retail banking branches in Kansas,Missouri, Oklahoma, and Florida.

The servicer ratings of Crown Northcorp have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch. The company has a master servicer rating of CMS3, a primary servicer rating of CPS2, and a special servicerrating of CSS2. (Fitch rates servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating.) "This decisionfollows disclosure of financial weaknesses that have led to a significant reduction in staff and affected the uncertaintyas to the future of the company," the rating agency said. Crown Northcorp does not service any commercialmortgage-backed securities deals currently rated by Fitch. Fitch's website address is http://www.fitchratings.com.

Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust, Southfield, Mich., has renewed its secured $110 million revolvingcredit facility with Fleet National Bank. The three-year facility carries an interestrate of 162.5 to 225.0 basis points over the London interbank offered rate, depending on the company's leverageratios. Other banks participating in the facility include Bank One Michigan, SouthTrust Bank, Bankers Trust Co.,Michigan National Bank, and Key Bank. The real estate investment trust also announced the renewal of $25 millionof a $45 million unsecured term loan with Fleet at an interest rate of 325-450 bp over LIBOR. The REIT's websiteaddress is http://www.ramcogershenson.com.

Freddie Mac has announced a $75 million homeownership initiative in south suburban Chicago withthe New Cities Community Development Corp. and the Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations. The three-year commitment will be used to buy mortgages made under the New Cities Homeownership Initiativeso the participating lenders, Harris Bank and Old Kent Banks, will have a continuous supply of new mortgage funds,Freddie Mac said. Craig Nickerson, Freddie Mac's vice president for community development lending, said the announcement"underscores our conviction that faith-based organizations like the Metropolitan Alliance of Congregationsand the New Cities Community Development Corporation represent a tremendous and largely untapped resource for reachingfamilies who might otherwise be reluctant to even think about applying for a mortgage and reaching for the AmericanDream of homeownership."

MGI Properties, a Boston-based real estate investment trust, has transferred its remaining assetsand liabilities to a liquidating trust and gone out of existence. The last dayof trading of MGI's common shares on the New York Stock Exchange was Sept. 27. The REIT's shareholders have becomeshareholders in MGI Properties Liquidating Trust.

The AFS Title Search Index fell to 126.7 for the week ended Sept. 29, a 2.7% decrease from 130.3the previous week, according to Mortgage Information Corp.'s Advance Factor Services. Ayear ago the index stood at 121.9, 96% of the current level. "Even if mortgage rates were to fall precipitously,the upcoming holiday effect would slow both housing turnover and refinance activity," said AFS director PaulDescloux. He said the holiday effect could cut title search activity by up to 50% during the peak holiday weeks.Mr. Descloux's e-mail address is mailto:paul.descloux@loanperformance.com paul.descloux@loanperformance.com.

Cabot Industrial Trust, Boston, has announced the formation of a joint venture with GE Capital RealEstate, Stamford, Conn., to acquire and develop industrial properties. Cabot isthe operating partner and will be paid acquisition, development, and management fees for services rendered to theventure, which plans to buy and develop up to $250 million of industrial properties. GE Capital has committed $100million to the venture, for an 80% equity share, and Cabot has committed $25 million, for a 20% share. The remainderof the financing will be funded by debt, for a target leverage of 50%, Cabot said. "This joint venture isfocused on investing, primarily through acquisitions, in multi-tenant and workspace properties," said Cabotpresident Robert Patterson. "These properties continue to experience strong demand, particularly from fast-growingbusinesses that are driving this economic expansion." The companies' website addresses are http://www.cabottrust.com and http://www.gecapitalrealestate.com .