The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has begun marketing a $175 million portfolio of apartment and healthcare mortgages.

The offering, the first for the agency this year, would be the latest in a string of offerings that have totaled $7.2 billion from 1994 through last September. The agency has recovered $5.2 billion from the loans, for a recovery rate of 72 percent.

Bids for the next portfolio will be due June 21. The portfolio, like its predecessors, will be dominated by multifamily mortgages. About 20 percent will involve healthcare loans.

While HUD doesn't originate loans, it operates several Federal Housing Administration programs that provide guarantees. As loans go bad, lending institutions that service them can "put" or assign the loans to HUD, which then tries to work them out or sells them. So all the loans that HUD sells are either distressed, or have had issues with them that might characterize them as subperforming.

The contractor companies working on the review, structuring and marketing of the portfolio included Systems, Services & Designs Inc. of Washington, Smith Unicorp Services of Dallas and Debtx of Boston, which is charged with marketing and selling the portfolio.

The three late last year helped the agency sell $255.1 million of loans. Thirteen investors divvied up the portfolio, paying $133 million, or 66 percent of face value.