For any questions regarding this commitmment or to find out how we can help refinance your current asset, please call us directly at 216-861-1300 or click here to inquire through email.  

The 27th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place on Saturday, April 14 in Cleveland and premiere on HBO on Saturday, May 5 (9-11:30 p.m. EST/PST). In addition, HBO Signature will present a 24-hour marathon of the HBO special, beginning at midnight that same day, and concluding Sunday, May 6 at midnight.

Some of the performers and presenters announced are:

• Beastie Boys will be inducted by Chuck D (new addition: LL Cool J to present)
• Donovan will be inducted by John Mellencamp (new addition: both to perform)
• Small Faces/The Faces will be inducted by Stevie Van Zandt (new addition: The Small Faces/Faces to perform)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers will be inducted by Chris Rock (new addition: Red Hot Chili Peppers to perform
• Laura Nyro will be inducted by Bette Midler
• Freddie King will be inducted by Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill (new addition: Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill to perform)
• Don Kirshner will be inducted by Carole King (new addition: Darlene Love to perform)
• Cosimo Matassa, Tom Dowd, Glyn Johns will be inducted by Robbie Robertson
• The Blue Caps, the Comets, the Crickets, the Famous Flames, the Midnighters and the Miracles will be inducted by Smokey Robinson

For all of events offered by the NOAA check out their website at http://www.noaamembers.com/.

Joseph Bobeck, Principal of Great Lakes Financial Group, will be joining the panel and if you would like to come hear the discussion, ask questions, or network with some industry experts please call Meyers Roman for more information at 216-831-0042.

Click here for more information Happy Days Are Here Again--Or Are They?

Daniele works in our Servicing Department as a Servicing Analyst.  She earned her Bachelor's Degree from Ursuline College and has been working in areas of finance for over 14 years.  She brings her expertise to Great Lakes Financial Group from working with Slavic Village Development and NRP Group LLC.  Daniele is a passionate and dedicated person and we are so excited to bring her on board.

David joins Great Lakes Financial Group as a Financial Analyst.  He graduated from Kent State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and went on to work at MBNA/Bank of America as a Business Analyst. After some time at MBNA/Bank of America, David was ready to further his career and went on to be a Senior Accountant/Analyst at Howard Wershbale and Co. David's financial and business knowledge makes him an integral part of our team and we are thrilled to have him working with us.

Tina comes to Great Lakes Financial Group as our Marketing Director.  She is currently completing her MBA from Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management and she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Telecommuncations from Bowling Green State University. Before joining our team Tina worked as a Television Producer at WKYC Channel 3 in Cleveland and as the Assistant Director of Annual Giving at Case Western Reserve University. We welcome her to the financial world and are so excited to have her marketing expertise applied here at Great Lakes Financial Group.  

 www.fairchildus.com

Great Lakes Financial Group is a MAP and LEAN approved FHA lender and is proud to be offering this competitive financing program as part of its financing options to owners and developers of high quality real estate.

This NCAHMA meeting will focus on key affordable housing development, underwriting and market study issues. The program will include a mix of program updates, roundtable discussions, and market analysis updates.

NCAHMA is an organization based in Washington DC. Since 2001, when a cadre of leading market study professionals organized to address the need for uniform standards, the organization has been setting the industry standard for real estate market research. NCAHMA works to bring accountability and consistency to market studies for affordable housing properties and other residential real estate.

NCAHMA presents opportunities for market analysts to discuss current issues, network and gain state-of-the-art information. The Council has created and refined guidelines to insure studies are sufficiently thorough to insure a comprehensive evaluation. Through multi-day forums and state HFA sponsored seminars, the Council brings market analysts together to share ideas among themselves – and with state agencies, equity syndicators, developers, local governments and other market study users.

The panel discussed the demand, supply and trends in providing affordable rental housing using the low income housing tax credits as a primary financing vehicle. The panelists discussed how the LIHTC tax credit had made these developments financeable and economically feasible for the development community. They discussed how to put together a successful apartment development in this sector, the variations in investor demand for purchase of low income housing tax credits, and the trends for the future in this segment of the apartment industry.

The panel featured noted developers Robert Gawronski of Senior Lifestyle Corporation and Linda Brace of Mercy Housing Lakefront, national syndicator Bryan Kilbane of Redstone Equities, and Director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority, Charlotte Flickinger.

Of note, Mr. Gawronski described his successes in putting together twenty-one Senior Suites developments in the City of Chicago and surrounding areas, and Ms. Brace discussed developing properties with affordable rental housing and retail components, utilizing multilayer financing. Ms. Flickinger commented that on the twenty fifth anniversary of the tax credit’s passage (1986) in Congress, she was very pleased with the efficiency of the program in allowing for the development of quality rental stock for low and moderate income residents. She wished that the Authority could do more to further this goal. Mr. Kilbane noted that the investment community (banks and insurance companies) have recognized the low risk of LIHTC investments and how the investment community has accepted returns below normal equity return levels for real estate investments.

The Chicago Real Estate Council (“CREC”), is a networking organization comprised of a diverse group of professionals in Chicago's commercial real estate industry. CREC operates for educational and social purposes with the mission of promoting the development, establishment and expansion of the real estate industry. CREC is one of the oldest real estate professional networking groups in Chicago and dates back to 1949. Originally called the “Junior Real Estate Board,” CREC was literally founded by the sons of Draper & Kramer and Baird & Warner and today has over 250 members.

Washington, D.C.–The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has kicked off Green Refinance Plus, which will be jointly operated by HUD’s Federal Housing Administration and Fannie Mae. The new program will allow owners of existing affordable rental housing properties to refinance into new mortgages that include funding for energy- and water-saving upgrades, as well as other necessary property improvements.

HUD Sec. Shaun Donovan and Fannie Mae’s Ken Bacon, executive vice president for multifamily business, unveiled the program this week at a senior housing development in the San Francisco Bay Area where HUD is investing in energy-saving green retrofits. Under the program, FHA and Fannie Mae share the risk on loans to refinance existing rent-restricted projects and provide owners additional funds to make green improvements to their properties.

The thinking behind the program, according to HUD, is that every 10 to 15 years or so, owners of existing multifamily affordable properties need to refinance their mortgages. Yet older apartment building owners are hard-pressed to find additional financing to maintain or improve their properties. Beginning next month, Fannie Mae and its participating lenders will begin accepting applications for the program.

Green Refinance Plus is intended to refinance the expiring mortgages of Low Income Housing Tax Credit and other affordable projects, and to lower annual operating costs by reducing energy consumption. Fannie Mae and HUD anticipate about $100 million in initial refinance volume, with an average loan amount of $3.5 million to $5 million. Also, FHA will insure up to an additional 4 percent to 5 percent of the loan amount, or an average of about $150,000 to $250,000 per loan, to provide additional funds to pay for property improvements such as energy-efficient windows and Energy Star appliances.

Property owners will be able to select the energy-efficiency upgrades that make the most economic sense for their properties, notes HUD. Borrowers will obtain a “Green Physical Needs Assessment” completed by a qualified provider, which identifies property improvements that reduce both energy and operating costs. That, according to the agency, ought to help borrowers make rehabilitation choices that give them the greatest energy savings for their investment.

Green Refinance Plus is an enhancement of the Fannie Mae/FHA Risk-Share program begun in the 1990s. It provides funding for the refinance, preservation and energy-efficient retrofits of older affordable multifamily housing properties, including those that are currently in Fannie Mae’s or FHA’s portfolios.

Fannie Mae
Fannie Mae has grown much more creative of late in its approach to moderate rehabilitations. The company no longer puts a cap on per-unit rehab amounts, and has recently gone as high as $50,000 per unit. Fannie Mae is now also offering a maximum two years of interest-only (IO) in such deals, and has also begun to do 35-year amortizations.

This is new as it was not something Fannie Mae would have done six months ago. Fannie Mae is definitely seeing a huge uptick in business like that this year, especially in the number of fixed-rate bond credit enhancements, which is where you see a lot of the mod rehab taking place.

For the company to consider two years of IO and 35-year amortizations, the loan term has to be 15 years or longer. An optimal scenario would be mod rehab with new low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) and a new Sec. 8 contract.

Freddie Mac
Freddie Mac has also been busy on the Mod Rehab side, especially in New Issue Bond Program deals. Freddie Mac has always offered 35-year amortizations, but with Fannie Mae following suit, that’s much less of a competitive advantage now.
In terms of per-unit costs, Freddie Mac’s published underwriting guidelines look at $25,000 per unit, but depending on the nature of the rehab and the costs in that area of the country, it could be larger, according to Christine Hobbs, director of affordable housing at McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac.
Freddie Mac also offers interest-only periods for mod rehab transactions, but when pressed, wouldn’t specify parameters. The company does maintain one big competitive advantage over Fannie Mae in the 4 percent LIHTC space: Freddie offers both fixed and variable-rate bond credit enhancements, whereas Fannie only offers fixed-rate.

FHA
The Federal Housing Administration also continues to make preservation deals a priority, and in fact is working on expanding its Sec. 223(f) program to include higher levels of per-unit rehab dollars.
The program currently offers light rehab dollars—$6,500 per unit adjusted upward for high-cost areas. Anyone looking to do more has to go through the Sec. 221(d)(4) program, which is a much more cumbersome and time-consuming process. But the agency is looking to scale up Sec. 223(f) to more closely mirror something like Freddie Mac’s Mod Rehab program, with hopes of rolling it out later this year.*

A week of troubling economic data helped push fixed mortgage interest rates to a new low for the year, representing the seventh consecutive weekly decline, according to the latest survey from Freddie Mac.

Surveys of national consumer confidence and manufacturing activity in the past month have suggested the economy may be slowing, said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft. The S&P Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, meanwhile, showed first-quarter home prices fell by the steepest annual rate since the third quarter of 2009.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.55% in the week ended Thursday, down from 4.60% the prior week and 4.79% a year earlier. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 3.74% from 3.78% the previous week and 4.20% a year earlier.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages held steady from last week at 3.41%, but are down from 3.94% a year earlier. One-year Treasury-indexed ARM rates rose to 3.13% from 3.11% the prior week but are down from 3.95% a year earlier.

To obtain the rates, 15-year mortgages required an average payment of 0.7 point, while the others required a 0.6 point. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest

Mr. Molina has also served as Senior Vice President and Regional
Manager in Ohio for a large Chicago headquartered bank. This
Cleveland based commercial real estate region, consisted of
approximately $525 million in loan commitments and $400 million in
loan principal outstanding.
This represented a portfolio loan growth in excess of 30%.

Previous experience included managing the Northern Ohio commercial
real estate region for a major national bank, primary markets
included: Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown. During his
management this Northern Ohio region grew from $30 million in loan
commitments to approximately $900 million in loan commitments and $675
million in principal outstanding.

During his tenure at the major national bank, he also managed the
Central Ohio commercial real estate region based in Columbus, Ohio.
This portfolio grew from $75 million in loan commitments to $400
million in the five (5) years he managed the Central Ohio market.

His experience in commercial real estate financing has involved the
construction, refinancing and acquisition of:
multi-family, retail, office, office/warehouse, student housing,
lodging, industrial, health care and self-storage assets.

Carlos Molina is a graduate of Saint Louis University where he
received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major
in finance.