News

Hotel asset managers are emerging as the new breed of experienced hotel receivers, according to Capital Hotel Management (CHM), a hotel asset management and investment advisory firm based in Beverly, Massachusetts. As the lending community looks for qualified receivers, the company said it expects to see an exponential leap in demand for hotel asset management services.

A team of mortgage finance and investment management veterans have announced the official launch of a new company, BlackBox Logic LLC. BlackBoxprovides investors, broker/dealers, and researchers with a database of loan-level collateral underlying non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).

Top officials from across the country warned policymakers in Washington this week that efforts to stem the housing crisis are falling short. According to a group of state banking regulators and attorneys general, six out of 10 seriously delinquent borrowers are not involved in loss mitigation efforts. Perhaps the most divisive proposal put forth by the group is that government programs should make principal reductions a priority in areas where home prices have plummeted.

In an effort to prepare for the mortgage industry's high volume of foreclosures that are expected to occur throughout 2010, Lenders Asset Management Corporation (LAMCO), a full-service default asset management company based in Littleton, Colorado, announced the development of its REO Services Scalability Initiative.

After a 13-month run of steady price declines, U.S. commercial property prices rose 1 percent in November, Moody's Investors Service said this week. Despite the short-term boost, Moody's says it expects prices to resume falling in the coming months as occupancyand rental rates continue to decline, but depreciation should be less severe than the sector experienced in the middle of 2009, when some index readings showed price dives in excess of 5 percent.

Despite a lack of placement opportunities in 2009, foreign investors in real estate say they remain committed to the United States as their preferred real estate investment opportunity. This sentiment is underscored by a dramatic increase in the number of overseas market participants identifying the U.S. as offering the best potential for real estate capital appreciation, according to the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate.

RealtyBid.com, an online home auction company, says it has hit the ground running in 2010 by offering close to 1,000 REO properties to investors and homebuyers across the country during the month of January. As part of this effort, hundreds of properties have been added to the company's auction Web site in the past week.

In an announcement Thursday, The Alter Group, a corporate real estate developer based in Chicago, said it has formed Alter Asset Recovery, which will provide expedited solutions for lenders and special servicers holding distressed properties. The formation of this new affiliate comes at a time when distressed commercial real estate assets are potentially the largest challenge facing banks and other lenders.

As DSNews.com reported, Google has recently released its AdWords comparison ads feature, which allows consumers to shop for and compare mortgages. In addition to teaming up with Mortech, Inc., Google has partnered with Los Angeles-based Leads 360, West Palm Beach, Florida-based OpenClose Mortgage Software, and Costa Mesa, California-based PriceMyLoan.

For months, analysts and industry experts have assured the markets that the downturn in the commercial real estate (CRE) sector won't be enough to send the financial system into a second crisis - that it won't be the dreaded next shoe to drop because exposure is isolated to smaller, community banks. But FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair says that's not an accurate assessment.