Securitization

The $446 million Pearl Street Mortgage Company 2018-1 Trust is backed by 30-year, fixed-rate loans with credit characteristics in line with recent private-label prime jumbo transactions rated by Fitch Ratings.

Growing competition may prompt commercial mortgage-backed securities issuers to accept higher loan-to-value ratios in their deals.

LendingClub, Marlette and others are looking at additional changes to both their securitization and whole-loan-sale programs that could further broaden their investor bases.

Participants at the Structured Finance Industry Group conference in Las Vegas say that future deals could be linked to the performance of jumbo, as well as conforming loans.

Credit unions favor housing finance reforms that would keep the government-sponsored enterprises or something similar in place, but add an explicit government guarantee to their mortgage-backed securities, according to a recent survey.

Financial services groups are calling for more funding for the Internal Revenue Service that could fix flaws in the agency's system for verifying the income of mortgage applicants.

Lender and servicers are increasingly using nontraditional methods such as "hybrid" appraisals and broker price opinions in an attempt to cut costs, but some are more reliable than others.

As inflation fears put upward pressure on 10-year Treasury bonds and mortgage rates nationally, borrowers could start to take more notice of what lenders are charging them locally.

Almost two years after settling mortgage securitization allegations with the Department of Justice and a group of states, Goldman Sachs has fulfilled more than half of its consumer relief commitment.

With few foreclosed homes left to pick up on the cheap, the biggest landlords are buying, or building, new single-family homes to pad their portfolios; mortgages on these properties could show up as collateral in rental bonds.

A new due diligence firm created by a trio of former Clayton Holdings executives wants to shake up a static business model.

Most of the collateral was acquired over the past year; that’s in contrast with the sponsor’s previous two transactions, in which a portion of the collateral was seasoned and refinanced from earlier transactions.

The deal is backed by an unusually concentrated portfolio of just 19 loans on properties being rehabbed or converted to a new use; by property type, the biggest exposure is to hospitality, at 19.7%.

Mortgage servicers should approach efforts to overhaul their compensated structure with caution, as changes to the status quo "could have ripple effects across the entire real estate finance industry," warned Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman David Motley.

Recent stock market volatility may further constrain jumbo lending, while inflation concerns have lenders paying close attention to rising mortgage rates.

Moody's considers the $932.4 million TPG Real Estate Finance Trust 2018-1 to be highly leveraged, though not as highly leveraged as Blackstone's inaugural transaction.

A group led by the National Fair Housing Alliance is suing Deutsche Bank, Ocwen Financial Corp. and Altisource Portfolio Solutions, alleging real estate owned properties in minority communities do not receive the same level of upkeep and maintenance as REO houses in white neighborhoods.

The Trepp CMBS Delinquency Rate for U.S. commercial real estate loans in CMBS is now 4.83%, a decrease of six basis points from the December level.

Varde VMC Lender, a Minneapolis firm specializing in distressed commercial real estate, has branched out to financing offices and apartment buildings being upgraded or repurposed.

The Blackstone affiliate is cashing out over $200 million of home price appreciation in the process, resulting in a loan-to-value ratio that is unchanged from the original Colony American Homes transactions.