News

Encore Retail, LLC, a privately held real estate development firm and subsidiary of Dallas-based Encore Enterprises, Inc., recently announced the appointment of Michael Nelson as VP and director of leasing for the company. Nelson brings over 25 years' experience in retail, office, medical, and industrial assets to his new position.

Despite current reports of stabilization within the economy, commercial real estate sectors continue to be negatively impacted by fallout from the recession, but according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), there is hope for some improvement by next year. Vacancy rates are expected to stay elevated throughout 2010, but NAR says with the job market anticipated to turn for the better later this year, the industry should see rising demand for office and warehouse space in 2011.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, LLC, a Dallas-based mortgage servicer specializing in highly delinquent loans, has announced its selection by the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) Services Corporation as the group's designated special servicer and preferred partner for dealing with defaulting loans. Wingspan will be providing its services to member credit unions in an effort to save as many of their problem loans as possible from foreclosure.

Lenders Asset Management Corporation (LAMCO), a nationwide REO management company, announced Tuesday that industry veteran Diane M. Cardinal is now a member of its board of directors and will aid in the company's strategic direction and growth of its REO portfolios. Cardinal has more than 37 years' experience within the REO and loan servicing industry, most recently as VP of the foreclosure asset management group at U.S. Bank.

Fannie Mae announced Monday the opening of a mortgage help center in Miami to help distressed borrowers in South Florida with loans owned by the GSE. The Miami facility is the first in a series of local centers that the mortgage financier plans to open across the country. Fannie Mae says the goal is to accelerate the response time for struggling homeowners and improve the company's resolution of problem loans.

Prices of commercial properties in the United States rose 4.1 percent in December, Moody's Investors Service said Monday, further feeding the debate over whether the sector's unpredictable crash has passed or still lies in the cards. It was the largest month-to-month increase in the 10-year history of Moody's commercial index, and marked the second consecutive month of price gains reported by the credit ratings agency. On top of those positives, transaction volume rose more than 75 percent from the previous month.

Integrated Mortgage Solution, a Houston-based provider of collateral protection resources for the mortgage servicing sector, recently announced its electronic document retrieval and indexing capabilities, which the company says will help servicers increase permanent loan modifications.

Subprime is a word that's now ostracized within the industry, but the repercussions of the housing boom days when subprime loans were commonplace are still resounding. Heightened concerns about the valuation of subprime assets backing U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) has manifested in an across-the-board drop for all vintages, Fitch Solutions reported last week.

In order to streamline communication between servicer clients and their investors, San Diego-based Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS), a nationwide property preservation and inspection services provider to the financial services industry, recently partnered with HomeTelos, a Dallas-based company that specializes in the development and support of Web-based solutions that support the management and marketing of real estate assets.

Last week came and went without the typical news of several FDIC-assisted bank closures, but the reprieve was short-lived. This weekend, regulators shut down four institutions - one each in California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas. These latest bring the number of failures on the FDIC's list to 20 for the year, and nearly all of the crashes have been linked in some way to bad mortgages or construction and development lending.