MORTGAGES A POPULAR FOREIGN INVESTMENT.(Business)

Byline: Christopher Ringwald Business writer

W hen Japanese businesses purchased 51 percent of Rockefeller Center or accumulated more than $10 billion worth of other domestic properties, the transactions caught everyone's attention. Less known is the possibility that a foreign investor may be collecting the mortgage payments on thousands of houses in the Capital District.

The homeowner may not even be aware of the change.

"Within three months it could end up as a security in Japan," said C.J. DeSantis, a director with Merrill Lynch & Co. In other words, whether a loan originates in the Capital District or Des Moines, Iowa, the monthly mortgage payment could wind up in the revenue stream of a German bank, Japanese pension fund or other institutional investor from almost any country.

Given the …