Finance

Hedge funds are eyeing malls, hotels, and office buildings hobbled by the Covid-19 pandemic in what some say may be the most lucrative commercial real estate move of 2021.

The pool of 359 loans also on average carry higher balances (over $900,000) compared to the REIT's earlier pass-through deal this year.

But late payments for all other investor types rose compared with the second quarter.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Dec. 4-10

Delinquencies and defaults are at or near historic lows as tracked by Fitch, while rising monthly payment rates show consumers are increasingly paying down balances.

Industrial warehouses, including cold storage facilities, are among the best-performing categories of commercial real estate as hotels, malls and offices face uncertain futures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

But existing deals are likely to experience issues resulting from higher defaults, faster prepayment speeds.

The average per-loan profit margin remains incredibly strong, but the share of senior executives expecting it to fall has risen markedly.

A program that lets firms bundle Small Business Administration loans is on hold while Congress spars over a new budget. The impasse is causing headaches for banks that rely on loan sales for fee income.

Whether Ginnie issuance increases in the future may depend in part on the extent to which the Biden administration wishes to tap the FHA to promote affordable housing and homeownership.

HomeEquity will sell an as-yet undetermined volume of notes to finance forthcoming originations by the bank sponsored by Birch Hill Equity Partners Management.

The more-than-$550 billion market for bonds backed by U.S. commercial mortgages may face losses even after promising Covid-19 vaccines become widespread, as key parts of the real estate market may not return to full strength anytime soon.

The single-family, duplex and multi-unit condo properties have an average age of 60 years, more than double the age of other rated SFR securitizations.

The third-quarter forbearance rate of the refinanced private student loans fell to 2.58% from the 8.36% average during the second quarter of the year – which is an approximate 70% decline.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Nov. 28-Dec. 3

The transaction involving 345 high-balance mortgages is just the third sponsored by Morgan Stanley's mortgage acquisition and trading arm since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

The $310.47 million GLS Auto Receivables Issuer Trust 2020-4 collateralizes 13,316 loans with an average borrower FICO of 573. That is lower subprime territory, but is slightly higher than any of GLS’ most recent securitizations, according to a report from DBRS Morningstar.

Even government-sponsored enterprise loans, which have seen forbearance rates drop for 24 weeks in a row, saw a slight uptick.

The third offering of bonds secured by non-guaranteed private student loans has a senior-note weighted average life of just 3.44 years, compared to over five years each for two prior Navient SLABS deals this year.

Other portions of the casino-property loan have been previously assigned to nine other commercial-mortgage securitizations.