Hearings begin Thursday on Michigan legislation that paves the way for Gov. Rick Snyder’s restructuring plan for the debt-laden Detroit Public Schools. Please note you must now log in with your email address and password.

The oil bust wreaking havoc on North Dakota’s economy also threatens to drain cash flow from $125 million of commercial mortgage backed securities, according to Morningstar Credit Ratings. The price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, recently has been trading below $40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a far cry from June 2014, when prices peaked above $100 a barrel.

SolarCity borrowers in Nevada and Hawaii will face higher than expected costs of operating solar panels thanks to new legislation adopted by each state’s public utilities commissions. Last month, Nevada’s public utilities commission issued a ruling ending net metering, which allows customers to sell excess energy produced by their solar systems back to the energy grid at retail rates.

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans have been available in Florida since 2010, but lending as well as securitization of these loans has lagged far behind California largely due to a series of lawsuits challenging the program’s validity. A ruling by the Florida Supreme Court in October could change that, allowing the Sunshine State to live up to its potential for green energy projects.

Add this to the long list of alternative ways to put money to work in the U.S. housing market: reverse mortgages that are in default. Reverse mortgages allow borrowers 62 years or older to convert a portion of the equity in their homes into cash. Unlike a traditional home equity loan or second mortgage, however, borrowers do not have to repay the loan until they sell the home or no longer use it as their principal residence.

Invitation Homes chose to exercise an option to extend the term of a loan backing the first single-family rental securitization. While the notice came at the 11th hour, it was no real surprise. The portfolio of rental homes ultimately backing the $479 million Invitation Homes 2013-SFR1 has been performing well, but there could still be challenges refinancing other deals in this sector when they come due over the next several years.

A number of investment banks have been increasing the portion of high-quality loans backing commercial mortgage bonds. These loans, while not publicly rated, have many of the characteristics of investment grade loans, such as good structure and experienced sponsorship, and they are secured by good quality properties in primary markets.

Volkswagen’s decision to halt sales of diesel cars in the United States that are involved in a recall puts bonds backed by dealer floorplan financing at risk. The stop sale, which was announced Sunday, leaves Volkswagen dealers “saddled with unsalable product, at least for the time being,” Barclays said in a report published today.

Income-based repayment, a federal government effort to relieve student-loan debt burdens, has roiled a normally tranquil securitization market, as investors can no longer be sure of when they'll be repaid.

American Honda Finance Corp increased the portion of longer term loans in its latest auto loan ritization, Honda Auto Receivables 2015-2. Loans with terms of five years or more account for 16.6% of the 2015-2 pool, which is higher than 14.2% in 2015-1 and 14.2% in 2014-4 and prior pools, according to Fitch Ratings.

Traditionally, single-family rentals has been a stable, albeit fragmented part of the U.S. housing market, primarily led by small-to-mid-size local operators. But the success of the institutional investor over recent months has opened the capital markets door to small-to-mid-size players.

Anecdotes abound after natural disasters displace businesses.After Hurricane Sandy walloped the East Coast, there was talk of mortgage bond traders, unable to enter Lower Manhattan in the...