Economy

Varde VMC Lender, a Minneapolis firm specializing in distressed commercial real estate, has branched out to financing offices and apartment buildings being upgraded or repurposed.

Here's a look at what happens at five federal agencies that support the mortgage industry during a government shutdown.

The Taxs Cuts and Jobs Act preserves most of existing benefits for owners, operators, and investors, and provides a few new perks as well; there are some trade-offs to be made, however.

Senate negotiators are working on a bill that would place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into receivership and replace them with multiple mortgage guarantors, according to sources.

Rather than jump right away into lending to car buyers, Access National will start by offering CRE and M&A financing to dealerships.

MountainView is brokering a nonrecourse $3.5 billion package of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage servicing rights on behalf of an unnamed seller.

A group of reinsurers has committed to provide up to $650 million of coverage for credit risk on some $21 billion of 30-year, fixed-rate loans that the government-sponsored agency will acquire over the next two years.

Some commercial buildings that are not required to obtain earthquake insurance may still be susceptible to significant structural damage that could put the borrowers at risk of default, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency.

Startups that have developed the technology for real estate finance are starting to conduct a broader array of transactions, including property sales.

Fannie Mae's serious delinquency rate climbed to a high not seen since March 2017, but remained lower than it was 12 months prior.

The GSEs are on their way to paying back the money they owed the government under the original bailout deal made at the height of the financial crisis, making 2018 an opportune time for an overhaul of the housing finance market.

Speculators who bet on declines in commercial mortgage bond indexes as a way to profit from the expected demise of regional shopping malls may still be waiting for a big payout, according to Trepp.

Home values grew during 2017 at their fastest pace in four years and the same supply and demand dynamics behind that increase remain in place for 2018.

Consumers’ desire to shop online is creating huge demand for distribution centers and forcing property owners to think creatively about redeveloping vacant retail space. Meanwhile, hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent rebuilding areas hard hit by hurricanes and wildfires.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be allowed to build capital buffers to protect against losses under an agreement between the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on Thursday.

The two government-sponsored enterprises have relied on the “classic” FICO credit scoring model for the past 12 years. But the Federal Housing Finance Agency is weighing whether the GSEs should upgrade to more recent scoring alternatives.

A £366.2 million mortgage on 127 industrial properties is being used as collateral for a transaction called Taurus 2017-2 UK DAC.

The $280 million securitization is also expected to boost capital levels and lower Dime's loan-to-deposit ratio.

The council is exploring legislation to collect around $492 million in delinquent real estate taxes that could aid the city’s school district.

Freddie Mac is broadening its capital markets vehicles with its first offering of participation certificate securities backed by multifamily tax exempt loans.