The Resolution Trust Corp. on Friday announced several offerings of mortgage pass-through securities in November, including two issues that are expected to be priced today.
Series 1991-14 securities will be backed by about 8580 million of single-family, adjustable-rate mortgages originated by 18 thrifts now under RTC management. Merrill Lynch & Co. will serve as the lead managing underwriter on the deal.
Series 1991-15 securities will be backed by about $350 million of single-family, adjustable-rate mortgages originated by seven savings and loans now being run by Resolution Trust. Goldman, Sachs & Co. will be lead managing underwriter.
The mortgages backing the securities are performing, but generally do not conform to the underwriting standards of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. or the Federal National Mortgage Association.
By lumping all the loans together and securitizing them, Resolution Trust hopes to produce a more marketable asset, which officials have said would improve the agency's cash recovery.
Resolution Trust was set up in 1989 to close failed thrifts and dispose of their assets. To date, the agency has closed about 581 thrifts and has pulled in about $201 billion from the sale of assets at dead thrifts.
The agency has a shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the sale of $14 billion of mortgage pass-through debt. Through 16 previous issues, the agency has sold about half that amount.
The nation's depressed real estate market will be particularly unkind to local governments that count heavily on their property bases, such as big-city school districts, according to the head of bond research at Kemper Securities Group Inc.
"Aggressive officie construction in the commercial business districts helped fuel steady property tax expansion during the 1980s," said Richard A. Ciccarone, director of fixed-income research at the Chicago-based investment bank. "Its absence will have a serious adverse impact on tax bases of older neighborhoods noted for deterioratng housing stock and unused manufacturing facilities."
At the same time, however, he said some older cities with diverse revenue sources will be shielded from these real estate problems and can offer good value to investors.
