Cleveland, Ohio's Amtrust Bank was seized by regulators Friday, making it the fourth largest institution to go under in 2009. Five smaller institutions in Georgia, Illinois, and Virginia were also shuttered over the weekend, bringing the total number of failed banks for the year to 130. In an FDIC-assisted transaction, New York Community Bank agreed to acquire all of Amtrust's deposits and "certain assets" totaling $11 billion. Community Bank was quick to point out that it declined to take on any non-performing loans serviced by AmTrust or any other REOs; construction, land, or development loans; or mortgage servicing rights.
The unemployment rate dropped in November, the Labor Department reported Friday, as companies shed the fewest number of jobs since the recession kicked in two years ago. The growing consensus within the mortgage industry is that unemployment is now the primary driver pushing delinquency numbers higher, but analysts at Amherst Securities Group say their research tells a different story. The study says borrowers who are underwater are more likely to fall behind on their mortgage payments than homeowners who lose their job.
The secondary market for commercial real estate is just beginning to show new life, with the first sale of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) in over a year and fresh interest from both investors and lenders. But the positives of renewed activity are tempered by more bad news on bond deals made before the freeze. According to a new report from commercial research provider Trepp, delinquent loans in commercial mortgage securities jumped to 5.65 percent at the end of November, with the largest increase coming from the hotel sector.
Early Friday morning, Rita Gosselin of Grosse Ile, Michigan was arrested after being accused of defrauding dozens of people in a massive real estate ponzi scheme, Attorney General Mike Cox announced. Gosselin is charged with racketeering, multiple counts of obtaining money under false pretenses for orchestrating numerous fraudulent real estate investments, and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Michigan families.
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