Secondary Market

Pinnacle, an international real estate management firm headquartered in Seattle, recently appointed Greg Signer as VP of operations for the company's East region. In this new position, Signer will be responsible for the oversight of existing owned assets, new developments, and new business development.

NewOak Capital LLC announced Monday the appointment of Carlos A.G. Vigon as managing director of the firm's commercial real estate investments and services division. Vigon will focus on expanding NewOak Capital's capabilities in commercial real estate principal investments, asset management, private equity, and advisory services across the property, loan, and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) segments.

Goldman Sachs is battling allegations that it misled investors in its mortgage securities business. That battle may have just gotten a little tougher. The firm maintains that like everyone else, it suffered heavy losses from the mortgage meltdown. But a Senate investigative committee has released several internal documents obtained from the Wall Street firm that reveal it made ""some serious money"" betting against the housing market, as Sachs' top execs' put it.

The private-label mortgage debt drought has come to an end. Redwood Trust Inc. priced the industry's first non-agency, non-government residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) in two years on Friday. Bidding by investors for the $222.4 billion pool of home loans was so strong that it sold at lower yields than Redwood initially offered.

Commercial real estate prices appeared to be stabilizing toward the end of last year, but a new study shows price declines have returned. Moody's Investors Service says its index for commercial property values fell 2.6 percent in February. It was the first decline recorded by the company in four months. The share of distressed sales in Moody's repeat-sales database has increased significantly over the last year. In early 2009, less than 20 percent of resales were identified as distressed. In February of this year, that proportion reached nearly one-third.

The Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie has opened a new office in Dallas. The firm says the expansion will allow it to better serve the interests of national clients in Texas. Former Greenberg Traurig shareholder, Steven R. Smith, has joined the firm and will be partner in charge of the office, focusing his practice on commercial real estate workouts and lending.

Redwood Trust Inc. plans to sell the first private securitization of newly originated mortgages since 2008. The residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) consists of 225 prime jumbo mortgage loans worth approximately $222 million. The bond could be a big step toward restoring a secondary mortgage market left stagnant by the housing crisis, when mounting defaults caused investors to recoil.

For all of 2009, commercial and multifamily mortgage origination volume tumbled 46 percent to $82.3 billion, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Thursday. The associaiton said decreases were seen across most property types and investor groups, led by reductions in loans intended for credit companies, REITS, mortgage REITs, investment funds, commercial mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, and other asset-backed security conduits.

While some are already touting improvements in the commercial real estate sector, Fitch Ratings is expecting widespread deterioration in commercial mortgage performance to rear its ugly head. In a special report issued Wednesday, the ratings agency warned that loan defaults will continue to escalate for U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). Fitch is projecting the default rate to rise another 4.4 percent in 2010, pushing the overall rate past 11 percent by the end of the year.

The FDIC has completed sales of $2 billion in notes backed by real estate loans seized from two big bank failures - Corus Bank in Chicago and Franklin Bank in Houston, Texas. According to the FDIC, the structured note sales - the first from the agency since the early 1990s - will increase recoveries for the two bank closings and return substantial funds to the deposit insurance fund, which has taken repeated hits with the elevated number of bank failures over the past two years.