Boston Mortgage News

Jumbo Mortgage Shoppers Get Little Relief From Rates (Update2) (Bloomberg)
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Jumbo mortgage shoppers in the most expensive U.S. housing markets such as New York and San Francisco aren’t getting much relief from lower borrowing costs.

Luxury complex lures $30.7M mortgage (Boston Business Journal)
A 180-unit luxury apartment project, called Abington Woods, secured a $30.7 million first mortgage. The mortgage was arranged by the Boston-based mortgage banking firm, Fantini & Gorga.

QUICK POLL (GlobeSt.com)
Should the Fed Bail Out Developers? ABINGTON, MA-The new luxury apartment complex, Abington Woods, is garnering a $30.7-million first mortgage from Boston-based Fantini&Gorga. The Heritage Co.--headquartered in Quincy, MA--is the developer of the 180-unit multifamily, which delivered in early 2008.

Fitch Downgrades Two Classes of CSFB 1999-C1; Assigns Outlooks (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
CHICAGO----Fitch Ratings has downgraded and assigned Distressed Recovery ratings to Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp.'s commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1999-C1, as follows:

BUSINESS BRIEFS (New York Post)
NYT pitch The New York Times Co. is actively shopping its 17.6 percent stake in the holding company of the Boston Red Sox. The Times Co. pushed dis cussions beyond the ex ploration phase early last month at the holding company's quarterly meeting...

Bush orders pardon re-examined (CNN)
President Bush on Wednesday ordered one of 19 presidential pardons granted earlier in the week to be re-examined.

Lower rates aren't helping jumbo loans (The Record)
Shoppers for jumbo mortgages in the most expensive U.S. housing markets, including New York, aren't getting much relief from lower borrowing costs.

Jury: Bank Blameless In Swindle (WCVB Boston)
A federal jury in Boston has ruled that Sovereign Bank was not negligent when it failed to investigate a swindler who used one of its business accounts in his $32.6 million Ponzi scheme.

New regulations draw criticism from businesses (The MetroWest Daily News)
Last year, more than 600,000 Massachusetts residents had personal information compromised or stolen in data breaches, according to a report by the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations. As a result, Massachusetts is taking sweeping steps, becoming the first state to require businesses to guard their customers' identity information.

Rush reacts to AFL shutting down (The Beacon News)
There's never a good time to lose your livelihood, but for the 400-plus players in the Arena Football League, the news that the 2009 season was being canceled hit particularly hard.