Plenty Of Actions

Last week\'s residential mortgage ratings actions
By SAM GARCIA
4/17/2002

Fitch Ratings affirmed Florida Housing Finance Corporation's (FHFC's) Affordable Housing Guarantee Fund's insurer financial strength rating at 'A', reflecting the low current risk-to-capital ratio, adequate board-determined reserve requirement, high asset quality and liquidity of guarantee fund investments, as well as the fund's ability to draw on future documentary stamp taxes deposited monthly to the State Housing Trust Fund. FHFC administers the Florida Affordable Housing Guarantee Program and supports it from the net assets of the guarantee fund. The program permits construction and permanent loan guarantees for individual and pools of multifamily properties, reinsurance agreements with private single-family mortgage insurance providers for primary and pool mortgage insurance, and guarantees for second mortgage programs.

Florida Housing Finance Corp.'s $100 million affordable housing guarantee revenue bonds (taxable), 2002 series A were rated at 'A' by Fitch. Additionally, Fitch affirmed the 'A' underlying ratings on 1993 series A, 1999 series A and 2000 series A outstanding affordable housing guarantee revenue bonds (taxable).

Classes of Utah Housing Corporation's mortgage bonds, 2002 series B were rated at 'AAA/F1+' to 'AA-' by Fitch. The $25 million single family mortgage bonds are being issued under the general trust indenture that pledges mortgage revenues, investment earnings, reserves and other trust funds to secure the bonds. The 'AAA' and 'AA' ratings reflect the credit quality of the trust estate's collateral, the adequacy of projected revenues to pay debt service and the credit enhancement provided by the 30% and 24% debt subordination underlying the class I and class II bonds, respectively.

Classes of Utah Housing Corporation's $21.5 million single family mortgage bonds, 2002 series A were also rated at 'AAA/F1' to 'AA-' by Fitch. While the class III bonds are secured by the assets and revenues of the trust indenture, their rating reflects the 'AA-' rating assigned to the creditworthiness of the corporation's GO pledge.

Fitch rated classes of Idaho Housing & Finance Association's $10.5 million single-family mortgage bonds, 2002 series B at 'AAA/F1+' to 'A+', and affirmed its general obligation debt pledge and the outstanding $315 million 2002 series A, 2001 series A through F, 2000 series F and G at 'AAA/F1+' to 'A+'. The bonds are expected to close April 18, 2002, through a syndicate led by Lehman Brothers. The 'AAA' and 'AA' ratings reflect the credit quality of the trust estate's collateral, the adequacy of projected revenues to pay debt service and the credit enhancement provided by the 16% debt subordination underlying the class I bonds and the 10% debt subordination underlying the class II bonds.

Moody's Investors Service rated senior certificates issued in the Washington Mutual MSC Residential Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates (RMPTC's), Series 2002-MS2 at 'Aaa' to 'B3'. The ratings are based on the credit quality of the underlying mortgage loans, the credit support provided through subordination, the legal structure of the transaction, and WaMu's capability as a servicer of mortgage loans. Moody's said the pool consists of prime-quality jumbo fixed-rate loans.

Classes of Bank of America's 2002-3 RMPTC's, which is a securitization of excellent quality fixed rate jumbo loans, were rated at 'Aaa' to 'B2' by Moody's. The ratings are based primarily on the levels of credit enhancement provided to the senior certificates through subordination -- which Moody's said are a reflection of the quality and outstanding historical performance of Bank of America's jumbo mortgage loans, as well as a reflection of the company's proven abilities as a servicer of such loans. Three groups of 15-year and 30-year loans have weighted average FICO scores of 737, 741 & 739, and weighted average original loan-to-value ratios (LTV's) of 68%, 66% & 60%. The majority of loans in the pool are located in California.

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