The beleaguered Citigroup Inc., who has repeatedly assured administration officials that it is getting back to banking basics, has found a buyer for its real estate investment business. Private equity firm Apollo Management LP has agreed to purchase Citi Property Investors, a unit of the bank's Citi Alternative Investments group.
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More traditionally underwritten and higher credit quality loans will be the norm when the U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market for newly-originated loans re-opens, according to Fitch Ratings. The agency says investors can expect better performance because lenders are returning to a more traditional style of lending, with loans containing better credit, full documentation, and less leverage.
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As the commercial real estate market continues to deteriorate, economists warn that overleveraged apartment owners may find it near to impossible to refinance their outstanding debt. Freddie Mac is keenly aware of the impact this lack of credit could have on the marketplace, and the GSE is taking steps to implement a new lending program that taps third-party mezzanine lenders to ensure funding is available for those multifamily property owners facing loan maturities.
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In the fourth quarter of 2009, delinquency rates continued to increase for most commercial and multifamily mortgage investor groups, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Thursday. Although delinquencies are still rising, MBA said earlier this week that commercial and multifamily mortgages are performing better than all other types of loans.
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Colliers International, a global real estate services company headquartered in Boston, recently secured the No. 2 spot in the annual Lipsey Survey of the top 25 brands in the commercial real estate industry. The firm jumped a notch from its third place position, which it has held since 2004.
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Last week, Rep. Barney Frank called for the nation's four largest banks to take a loss on secondary mortgage debt, such as home equity loans, which he says have no real economic value considering the state of the housing market.
An influential group of investors, representing holders of some $100 billion in mortgage securities, is throwing its full support behind Frank's proposal, but the coalition is concerned that unless Treasury provides further guidance, the banks will shun the idea because it could result in "catastrophic" losses.
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An activist group who says its purpose is to investigate and prosecute government corruption is in a federal court battle to get its hands on documents detailing the political contributions made by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The organization says its been trying to get access to the GSEs' records since May of last year but has been denied by the companies' regulator, who is shielding the documents under claims that the government-controlled firms are private corporations. No. 2 on the GSEs' list of campaign contribution recipients is President Obama.
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Fitch Ratings warned Tuesday that the still-weak financial fundamentals of the nation's lenders have cemented its rating outlook for the U.S. banking sector as negative.
The New York-based agency did note, though, that many of the factors that have been putting downward pressure on banks' ratings, including lending and liquidity, are easing. However, commercial real estate exposure, particularly for regional banks, as well as consumer mortgages are expected to weigh heavy on lenders' earnings into 2011.
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Both the House bill for financial regulatory reform and the draft Senate bill currently being debated include across-the-board risk retention provisions for home mortgages. The idea is to ensure lenders have more "skin in the game," to prevent the risky practices that ignited the housing crisis.
But according to a new study by the Community Mortgage Banking Project, such mandated risk retention is "no substitute" for good underwriting and could significantly raise the cost of home mortgages.
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The magnitude of the commercial real estate (CRE) downturn is a topic of intense debate. One school of thought argues that bad CRE loans could send the nation into another tailspin recession, while others say the industry has the advantage of lessons learned from the housing crisis to successfully weather the storm.
New data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Tuesday seems to support the latter. MBA has concluded that commercial and multifamily mortgages continue to have the lowest charge-off rates of any loan type.
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