Secondary Market

Fannie Mae said Monday that it is extending the time period for servicers to request reimbursement for counseling provided by HOPE NOW Alliance members. The GSE covers the cost of counseling fees paid by its servicers on behalf of borrowers who turn to the HOPE NOW Alliance to resolve mortgage delinquencies.

Boston-based CWCapital, a full-service national lender to the multifamily and healthcare real estate industries, recently appointed David Lundin as SVP and production manager for the firm's Northeast Federal Housing Administration lending operations. A 20-year industry veteran, Lundin began his career at HUD as a multifamily housing representative, and he has since underwritten in excess of $500 million of HUD-insured loans.

JPMorgan Chase sold a $716.3 million bond backed by commercial mortgages Friday. It's the largest multi-borrower conduit deal of its kind since secondary markets froze up more than two years ago, and only the second commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) offering of 2010. The bond is backed by 36 fixed-rate commercial mortgages secured by 96 properties, primarily retail stores. Nearly a third of the properties are located in California and Texas.

The volume of troubled residential properties has been growing since 2005, but Standard & Poor's says regional inventory levels and trends will determine the detriment of this shadow supply. In the New York City metro area, for example, the company estimates that it will take 103 months for shadow inventory to clear, assuming current liquidation rates. That's nearly 3.5 times the national average of 34 months. By contrast, the Phoenix area has the lowest level of shadow inventory, at 16 months.

Due to the recent housing downturn and a lack of funding, the board of director of Neighborhood Housing Services of America (NHSA), a nonprofit secondary market for home loans to low- and moderate-income homebuyers, has authorized the orderly wind down of its affordable housing programs. ""It is unfortunate that circumstances require the ending of this exemplary contribution to the nation's housing needs,"" said Bruce Gottschall, chairman of the board of directors of NHSA.

Over the past year, the mortgage risk analysis firm Clayton Holdings says it has witnessed an overall increase in short sale activity. Because of the growing emphasis on keeping borrowers out of foreclosure, servicers are becoming more inclined to employ alternative loss mitigation strategies. And Clayton says the added benefit to servicers - the one with dollar signs in front of it - is that loss severities for properties sold through short sale are 13 percent lower than loss severities for REO sales.

The aggregate value of DebtX-priced commercial real estate loans that collateralize commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) jumped to 76.4 percent as of April 30, 2010, up from 75.9 percent the month prior. Kingsley Greenland, CEO of DebtX, said the increase in U.S. CMBS collateral prices was the result of tightening credit spreads and a flattening of the Treasury yield curve.

FirstService PGP Valuation and Colliers Arnold jointly announced Tuesday that they have teamed up to create a commercial real estate appraisal firm in Central Florida. According to the companies, this new firm - Colliers International Valuation & Advisory Services Central Florida - will serve as an appraisal service provider across the Central Florida region while expanding the service line reach of the Colliers International enterprise, which encompasses more than 480 offices throughout the world.

A $1 billion net increase in office loan delinquencies has fueled a 49 basis point rise in past due loans held by commercial-mortgage backed securities (CMBS), according to the latest index results from Fitch Ratings. The firm's data shows the CMBS delinquency rate at 7.97 percent for the month of May. With the increase in the number of loans going bad, Fitch notes that more and more CMBS assets are being transferred to special servicers. Though loan resolutions increased in 2009, the inventory of U.S. CMBS loans in special servicing is at an all-time high.

Clayton Holdings LLC announced Tuesday that it has appointed Brian R. Clark as senior managing director and business development officer for its commercial real estate (CRE) business. In his new position, Clark will work with Clayton's CRE team, headed by Ed Robertson, to help financial institutions, CRE owners, and investors with portfolio and property valuation services as well as strategy development.