Private Idaho

Last week\'s residential mortgage ratings actions
By MortgageDaily.com staff
11/6/2001

In its report entitled "Trends in Residential Mortgage Products; Third-Quarter 2001 LTV Ratios, FICO Scores, and Credit Support Levels,'' Standard and Poor's (S&P) announced that the securitization of hybrid, adjustable rate mortgages (adjustable-rate loans that have initial fixed-rate periods of 3-10 years) remained popular in the third quarter as S&P rated 12 such transactions -- up from nine deals in the second quarter and just three in first-quarter 2001.

Fitch affirmed Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc.'s (WFHM) 'RPS1' residential primary servicer ratings for prime and Alt-A products and upgrades its primary servicer rating for subprime product to 'RPS1-' from `RPS2'. The ratings are based on the company's strong financial condition, experienced management team, solid performing and non-performing loan management, and integrated technology. The ratings reflect WFHM's default operations focusing on early collections, loss mitigation, timeline management and the successful integration of the former GE Capital Mortgage Services operation in San Bernardino, CA into one of the company's six servicing sites.

Fitch rates residential mortgage primary, master, and special servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating. Within each of these rating levels, Fitch further differentiates ratings by plus (+) and minus (-) as well as the flat rating.

Golden West Financial Corporation, parent of World Savings Bank, announced that S&P revised its outlook on the company to positive from stable. Golden West said S&P cited it's extensive track record, extremely low credit risk profile, strong capital levels, consistently strong risk-adjusted profitability and th continued expansion of World Savings Bank.

Fitch rated classes of ABN AMRO Mortgage Corporation's multi-class mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-7, at 'AAA', reflecting the level of subordination and reflect the high quality of the underlying collateral, the integrity of the legal and financial structures and the servicing capabilities of ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, Inc. The 30-year and 15-year fixed rate mortgage (FRM) loans are broken up into two groups with respective weighted average original loan-to-values (WSOLTV) of 73.5 percent and 63.4 percent, weighted average coupons (WAC) of 7.29% and 6.84%, and weighted average FICO's of 727 and 728.

Classes of CWMBS, Inc.'s (CWMBS) $401 million mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001- 22, CHL Mortgage Pass-Through Trust 2001-22 and $766.5 million mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-23, were rated 'AAA' by Fitch. The ratings reflect the level of subordination, quality of the underlying mortgage collateral, strength of the legal and financial structures and servicing capabilities of Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. as master servicer. The 20-year to 30-year loans backing the certificates have a WAOLTV of approximately 72% percent. Nearly half the loans are in California.

Fitch also rated classes of CWMBS's $380.5 million CHL mortgage pass-through certificates series 2001-21, alternative loan trust 2001-10 at 'AAA' to 'BBB', reflecting factors mentioned in the prior paragraph. The 20-year and 30-year loans collateralizing the certificates have a WAOLTV of 81.66%, with about 40 percent of the loans being originated under the No Income/No Asset and Reduced Documentation Programs.

Fitch rated classes of Idaho Housing & Finance Association's (the association) $13 million single-family mortgage bonds, 2001 series E at 'AAA/F1+' to 'A+'. The bonds are expected to close Nov. 1, 2001, through a syndicate led by Lehman Brothers.

Classes of Citicorp Mortgage Securities, Inc.'s (CMSI) 30-year mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-15 were rated 'AAA' to 'BBB' by Fitch. The 'AAA' rating reflects the level of subordination, the high quality of the underlying collateral, the capabilities of Citicorp Mortgage, Inc. (CMI) as servicer, and Fitch's confidence in the integrity of the legal and financial structure of the transaction. The WAOLTV of the loans is about 70 percent, and the WAC is 7.33%.

Fitch rated at 'AAA' to 'BBB' classes of Washington Mutual Mortgage Securities Corp.'s $538.2 million mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-MS12. The ratings reflect the level of subordination, which Fitch believes will be adequate to support mortgagor defaults as well as bankruptcy, fraud and special hazard losses in limited amounts. In addition, the ratings reflect the quality of the mortgage collateral and the strength of the legal and financial structures. The FRM loans consist of 30-year and 15-year loans, with significant concentrations of California properties. Broken down into three groups, the respective WAOLTV's are 73.1%, 65.9%.

Ratings of 'AAA' to 'BBB' were given to classes of Bear Stearns ARM Trust $280.1 million mortgage pass-through certificates, Series 2001-7 by Fitch. The ratings reflect subordination levels, underlying mortgage collateral quality, legal and financial structure strength and Wells Fargo Bank Minnesota's servicing capabilities as master servicer. Loans were acquired from Firstar Home Mortgage, HomeBanc Mortgage Corporation, Atlantic Savings Bank and East West Bank. The weighted average current loan-to-value is almost seventy percent, and the WAC is 6.956%.

Fitch rated classes of Residential Funding Mortgage Securities I, Inc.'s (RFMSI) $539.7 million series 2001-S23 and RFMSI $225.3 million, series 2001-S25 mortgage pass-through certificates at 'AAA' to 'BBB', reflecting the level of subordination, the quality of the mortgage collateral, strength of the legal and financial structures, and Residential Funding Corp.'s (RFC) servicing capabilities (rated `RMS1' by Fitch) as master servicer. The 30-year series and 15-year series loans backing the certificates have respective WAOLTV's of about 71% and 60.66%. Nearly half the loans are in California.

Classes of Residential Accredit Loans, Inc. $289.3 million mortgage asset-backed pass-through certificates, series 2001-QS14, were rated at 'AAA' to 'BBB' by Fitch. The ratings are based on the level of subordination, which Fitch believes will be adequate to support mortgagor defaults as well as bankruptcy, fraud and special hazard losses in limited amounts. The 1,398 loans backing the certificates have a WAOLTV of about 77%, and more than half the loans were originated under a reduced loan documentation program.

Fitch rated at 'AAA' First Horizon Home Loan Corporation's (First Horizon) $411.3 million mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-7 classes A-1 and A-R. The ratings reflect the level of subordination, quality of the mortgage collateral, strength of the legal and financial structures, and First Horizon's servicing capabilities as servicer. The 20-year and 30-year loans behind the certificates have a WAOLTV of 73.19%, with jumbo loans accounting for about half the loans. The weighted average FICO score of the mortgage pool is 734.

Ratings of 'AAA' to 'BBB' were given to classes of Sequoia Mortgage Trust 5, $510 million collateralized mortgage bonds by Fitch. The loans backing the certificates require interest-only payments during the first ten years. The WAOLTV is about 75%.

Fitch rated classes of Wells Fargo Mortgage Backed Securities $515.8 million mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-24 and $497.6 million mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-26. Fitch cited subordination levels and ongoing transaction quality as the reason for the ratings. The certificates are backed by 30-year FRM loans, with nearly half in California. The weighted average FICO of the pool is about 724, the WAC is approximately 7.3% and the WAOLTV is 69 percent.

Classes of Structured Asset Securities Corp. $256.6 million mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-16H were rated `AAA' to 'BBB' by Fitch, the subordination levels and the ongoing quality of the transaction. The 20-year to 30-year purchase-money loans collateralizing the transaction have a WAOLTV of 101.93% and a weighted average FICO score of 741.

Fitch rated at 'AAA' to 'BBB' classes of Impac Secured Assets Corp. (Impac) $200 million mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-7, reflecting subordination levels and the transaction quality. The weighted average FICO score is approximately 678, and all loans with original LTV's more than 80% are insured either by a Primary Insurance Policy or a Radian Lender-Paid PMI Policy. The fixed rate loans have 30-year amortizations, and more than 85 percent were originated under Impac's reduced documentation programs. The loans are broken into two groups with WAOLTV's of 82.5% and 76.5%, and nearly 40 percent of the loans are in California. The initial loans will be subserviced by Wendover Financial Services Corporation until January 2002, at which time servicing will transfer to GMAC Mortgage Corporation.

Impac's CMB Trust Series 2001-3 $397 million collateralized asset-backed bonds were also rated at 'AAA' to 'BBB' by Fitch. The ratings on the bonds reflect the subordination level, the quality of the underlying collateral and the soundness of the legal and financial structures. The 30-year 1st and 2nd liens backing the trust have a WAOLTV of 84.3% and a weighted average FICO score of approximately 681. More than ninety percent of the loans were originated under Impac's reduced documentation programs.

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