Secondary Market

Following the recent acquisition of Real Estate Econometrics (REE) by Real Capital Analytics (RCA), a global research firm based in New York City, Dr. Sam Chandan of REE was appointed as chief economist, EVP, and a member of the management committee at RCA, according to an announcement Tuesday by the firm.

Atlanta-based Regent Partners LLC and TriGate Capital have joined forces to form a $400 million fund to invest in commercial real estate in Atlanta and the Southwest. It's just one more sign that the downturn in the sector has created a buyer's market of incredible bargains.

After a comprehensive search process by the American Securitization Forum (ASF) board of directors, Tom Deutsch was appointed as the organization's executive director. Members of the board said they strongly believe Deutsch has the leadership skills, as well as the depth of experience and understanding of the industry to guide ASF in its efforts to restart the securitization markets and restore vital credit to Maine Street and everyday Americans.

Defaults on home loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to climb, but the two aren't taking the losses lying down. The GSEs' forced banks to buy back $7 billion in soured loans during the first nine months of 2009, and it's the largest lenders that are taking the biggest hit. A growing number of community banks, on the other hand, are seeing interest from discerning buyers for assets already identified as ""bad loans,"" and they're shrinking their nonperforming portfolios by as much as 80 percent with one sale.

Wells Fargo is the nation's top commercial and multifamily mortgage servicer, according to data released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Monday, followed by PNC Real Estate and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage. New analysis by MBA also contradicts earlier doom and gloom forecasts regarding maturity levels of commercial real estate loans. The trade group says only about 13 percent, or $184 billion, of the $1.45 trillion dollars in outstanding mortgages held by non-bank investors is scheduled to come due in 2010.

A federal judge in New York has thrown out a lawsuit against Standard & Poor's and Moody's brought by investors who claim the ratings agencies defrauded them on nearly $100 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) issued by the now defunct Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. back in 2007.

The Catylist commercial information exchange (CIE) service was recently adopted for the commercial members of My Florida Regional MLS (MFRMLS), a consortium of 13 Realtor boards and Florida's largest multiple listing service (MLS) with approximately 30,000 subscribers.

On Friday, Encore Equities, LLC, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Encore Enterprises, Inc, named Scot Clevenger as the company's VP of capital markets. In his new position, Clevenger will cultivate investor and partner relationships and identify projects that meet the company's investment criteria.

In an announcement Thursday, Allonhill, a Denver-based third-party review firm specializing in mortgage due diligence and credit risk management, said it has formally released a complete securitization solution for issuer and underwriters of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).

According to a recent report by DebtX, a full-service loan sale advisor based in Boston, the aggregate value of DebtX-priced commercial real estate (CRE) loans that collateralized commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) dropped to 75.9 percent as of December 31, 2009, falling 1.8 percent from November 30, 2009.