United Bank & Trust Blog

United Bank & Trust is proud to be a presenting sponsor of this year’s Big House Big Heart event to be held Sunday, October 9, 2011. This exciting race starts at the University of Michigan Stadium, with the racers’ finish line being the 50 yard line!

There are two ways for you to raise money for local non-profits:
1. Runners and their teams can raise funds for the charity of their choice.
2. Champions for Charities (the event’s organizer) donates a portion of every participant’s entry fee to three U-M departments – the U-M Cardiovascular Center, C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital and ALS research at the U-M Program for Neurology Research & Discovery.

This month, let’s focus on the first one: The U-M Cardiovascular Center.

Did you know? Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer of Americans today.

U. S. News and World Report ranked the U-M Hospital 14th best hospital overall in 2010 and the Cardiovascular Center 11th nationwide. How lucky are we to have such a great institution in our own backyard!

Since the early 1900’s, U-M has had faculty who have made discoveries that have influenced cardiovascular decisions worldwide which ultimately saves lives.

In fact, Ann Arbor is home to Dick Sarns, a local engineer, who worked with U-M surgeon Herbert Sloan, and developed what is today’s most noted heart lung machine, used in countless complex surgeries of the heart, vessels and brain.

U-M’s Cardiovascular Center strives to serve patients, push boundaries on research and train tomorrow’s health leaders. On an annual basis, the Cardiovascular Center:

1. Treats over 40,000 patients.
2. Performs 7,500 studies and procedures.
3. Completes 1,500 open heart and vascular operations on adults.
4. Does 600 open heart operations on children.

And these are just a few of the reasons why it’s important for United Bank & Trust to support Big House Big Heart and for the community to be part of making a difference!

Help raise more money for the Big House Big Heart run. Click here and like us on our Facebook page and we will donate another $1 per like!

We are excited to announce that United and the Washtenaw County Office of Community Development (OCD) are partnering to join the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis (FHLBI) Neighborhood Impact Program (NIP).

This program provides rehabilitation assistance to homeowners with household incomes at or below 80% of area median income. NIP will match funds from the County to increase a homeowner’s total resources to rehabilitate a home. In order for Washtenaw County to take advantage of this program they needed to have a FHLBI member sponsor the program and they asked United.

This will provide important benefits to low income homeowners in our community.

• FHLBI will provide up to $10,000/household with a 3:1 match. This will be provided by the OCD. The OCD plans to request approximately $300,000, which together with the County match; will help over 30 – 40 low income households in Washtenaw County live in safe and sanitary housing.

• OCD has administered a homeowner rehabilitation program for over 40 years. During the past two years they have responded to 29 emergencies (furnaces, leaky roofs, sewer back-ups), and completed 114 full rehabs for an average cost of $17,053. There are currently 31 people on the waiting list. The downturn in the economy has hit local homeowners hard, and the demand for Community Development funds has increased tremendously.

For more information on how to qualify or to participate in this program please contact:

Darnishous Ingram
Intake Specialist
The Office of Community Development – Washtenaw County
110 N. Fourth Ave, Suite 300
P.O. Box 8645 Ann Arbor, MI 48107
Phone: 734.622.9036
Email: ingramd@ewashtenaw.org

This program is another great example of United’s Commitment to our Communities.

The fiscal year-end for the SBA was 9/30/2010 and United Bank & Trust and United Structured Finance Co. were again the number one lenders in the counties we serve.

On a combined basis, for the counties of Lenawee, Livingston, Monroe and Washtenaw, we approved 25 SBA loans resulting in over $10,000,000 in funds going into our local businesses and communities to spur economic growth and create jobs. We made more than twice the number of SBA loans than any other lender in our communities (25 compared to 11) and made almost four times the dollar amount of loans than any other lender in our communities ($10.03MM compared to $2.53MM).

In our market we made 24% of all of the SBA loans done in the fiscal year and over 30% of all of the dollars lent in fiscal 2010 were made by United Bank & Trust and United Structured Finance Co.

I am proud that this validates our commitment to our communities, local businesses and desire for job growth. So far in the fiscal year 2011 we are off to a great start in lending and are excited to see other financial institutions in our community stepping up to utilize the SBA loan programs at record levels for the benefit of all of our community clients.

I attended the annual Mortgage Bankers Association – Commercial Real Estate Finance Conference (MBA-CREF) last week in San Diego and for the first time since 2007 felt a genuine sense of optimism and enthusiasm relative to the state of the commercial real estate finance industry…albeit cautious.

According to the MBA’s Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations, $110 billion of loans were originated in 2010, up 36% from 2009. Leading the way were life insurance companies with volumes 155% higher than in 2009. In addition, Fourth Quarter 2010 overall loan originations jumped 63% over the same period in 2009.

Additional reasons for optimism include:
1. Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS) markets are poised for a comeback – 25 firms have now set up CMBS/Conduit operations and expect to originate $68 billion in new commercial real estate loans in 2011, up from only $12 billion in 2010. Although this pales in comparison to 2007’s record mark of $230 billion of CMBS originations, it represents significant head winds for liquidity in the market.
2. Life insurance companies will once again have capital available and continue to lend in 2011.
3. Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE’s) such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with HUD will increase deal flow this coming year.

With the fresh capital available and market enthusiasm we experienced, it generally means we are slowly returning to some form of normalcy in the commercial real estate finance industry. It could also mean competition is forming and well presented loan opportunities could experience improved loan terms (interest rates and leverage).

Negating some of the optimism was a general consensus from industry experts that 2011 could be the high water mark for distressed commercial real estate activity. Although the ratio of newly defaulted loans to resolved loans is leveling, this year could be the highest volume of distressed assets to hit the market.

For more information regarding commercial mortgage originations, please see the MBA “Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations” or contact me at jkleinschmidt@ubat.com if you have any specific questions or comments.

Last month the SBA announced two new lending initiatives that will provide small business borrowers quicker access, with less paperwork, to much needed capital. The SBA’s new Small Loan Advantage incentive will reduce the paperwork burden- and loans that are submitted electronically can be approved in minutes or within one business day.

The second initiative, called Community Advantage, will provide access to SBA-backed loans for under-served communities (such as minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses as well as small businesses in lower-income and rural areas). The SBA recommends that borrowers work with an advisor to develop a business plan and loans can be approved within 5 to 10 days.

These streamlined programs will provide small business owners across the country an opportunity to create jobs in the local communities they serve and drive economic growth.

United Structured Finance is actively researching product development that will create a streamlined loan origination process for credits that are $350,000 and less.

More info:

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/15/smallbusiness/sba_small_business_loan_programs/