Twenty-eight percent of home mortgages are overdue in Miami - David Volz - Examiner.com

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the government is still buying mortgages but in another form - WSJ On Fed's Mortgage "Assets" - Bruce Krasting - ... The Fed dramatically (and predictably) slowed its purchases of MBS in March. They have made no new purchases since then. So they have lived up to the bargain, but the other arm of the federal financial puzzle started buying in MBS at just the time the Fed stopped. The Treasury department through Fannie and Freddie started a program that commenced in March and will continue for some time to come where they will be buying in $100rds of billions of MBS. ... - Bruce Krasting Blog

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Squatters: 4.4 Million and Counting - Charles A. Smith - The above table from the FDIC and Foresight Analytics reveals the steady climb in the number of people living in their homes but not paying for them.  - Seeking Alpha

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Jumbo mortgages become more affordable - By Amy Hoak -  ... Since the beginning of 2010, banks including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and U.S. Bank have gotten more aggressive in originating jumbos ... Then, last week, more news on the jumbo front: Redwood Trust Inc., announced it would offer the first private securitization of mortgage-backed debt since 2008. The securities are based on high-quality jumbo mortgages, basically setting it up as a test case to determine if the private securitization markets can be revived, said Keith Gumbinger,... - MarketWatch

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Plaintiffs Substantially Prevail in Two Subprime Lawsuit Dismissal Motion Rulings - ... The conventional view is that plaintiffs may be faring poorly in many of the subprime-related cases. However, plaintiffs have in fact been doing relatively better in ’33 Act claims brought by purchasers of mortgage-backed securities. A recent ruling in the Wells Fargo Mortgage-Backed Certificates Litigation, ... continues this trend of relatively favorable rulings in these cases. ... - D&O Diary

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Private mortgage insurance companies return to market - Lew Sichelman - As the FHA tightens its requirements for borrowers with small down payments, independent insurers are back in the game and offering competitive rates. - mentions Genworth, MGIC, Radian, PMI - thanks Peter Miller -  LA Times Business

Flipping houses is back in South Los Angeles - Alejandro Lazo - Investors are snapping up foreclosed homes in hopes of making a quick killing - ... Flipping was also given a boost in February when the Federal Housing Administration temporarily suspended its "no flip rule," which prohibited people using FHA loans from purchasing properties from sellers who had owned the homes less than 90 days. The one-year suspension was designed to give the housing market a boost. ... "People have very, very short memories and we go straight from collapse to bubble," said Leo Nordine, one of Los Angeles' top foreclosure agents. "The second South L.A. stopped crashing, we started getting 20 offers on everything." ... - LA Times Business

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Reverse Mortgage Helps Town Recover Stolen Funds - The Post Tribune reported that two thirds of the $300,000 stolen from the town of Merrillville by former bookkeeper Rosemary Barath has been recovered, thanks in part to a court order requiring her to obtain a reverse mortgage on her house said Councilman Joseph Shudick, D-5th. - Reverse Mortgage Daily

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Q1 2010: Homeownership Rate Lowest Since Q1 2000 - 3 charts and comments - by CalculatedRisk

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First American CoreLogic: House Prices Decline 2.0% in February - by CalculatedRisk -  The Fed's favorite house price indicator from First American CoreLogic’s LoanPerformance ...
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9 Years' Worth of Homes - Michael Panzner - ... But when the potential inventory of homes for sale by banks -- which is aside from the properties that homeowners and builders might also be looking to unload -- is equivalent to nine years' worth of demand, as detailed by Real Time Economics in "Number of the Week: 103 Months to Clear Housing Inventory," that suggests those who see signs of a recovery in the residential real estate market should probably be thinking about checking into rehab ... - Financial Armageddon