Fed's Citi logic is hard to follow<br/>http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2012/03/15/feds-citi-logic-is-hard-to-follow/

SIFMA By the Numbers: Tracking Systemic Risk<br/>http://www.sifma.org/news%2fblog.aspx%3fid%3d8589937899%26blogid%3d8589936046

Securitization Risk Rising as Standards Ease, Moody's Says Bloomberg The riskiness of securities backed by assets from car loans to commercial mortgages is rising from the lows seen after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s 2008 collapse, according to Moody's Investors Service. Easing underwriting standards and "untested" ...

Foreign buyers, largely from South America, but also from Europe, Russia and China, are flooding into the Miami area, and that has developers rushing to keep up with demand.

Manhattan Luring REITs With Soaring Rents: Mortgages Bloomberg The best-performing real estate investment trusts this year will be owners of office and industrial properties, as occupancies improve and landlords raise rents, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) analyst said. Commercial real estate has "turned the corner," ...

Mortgage lenders appeared to have no problem taking up the slack after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac high-cost loan limits were lowered in the fourth quarter of 2011. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae financed 36.6 percent of the loans exceeding $417,000 that were originated in the fourth quarter of last year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. That was down from a 42.7 percent agency share of the jumbo market in the previous quarter. The key factor was the reduction in the top Fannie/Freddie loan limit from $729,750 to $625,500, which (Includes two data charts)...

A roundup of economic news from around the Web.

--145,000 Y-O-Y Decline in Foreclosure Inventory to 1.4 Million Homes-- CoreLogic® (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its National Foreclosure Report for January, which provides monthly data on completed foreclosures, foreclosure inventory and 90+ delinquency rates. There were 69,000 completed foreclosures in January 2012, compared to 80,000 in January 2011, and 65,000 in December 2011 . The number of completed foreclosures for the previous twelve months was 860,128. From the start of the financial crisis in September 2008, there have been approximately 3.3 million completed foreclosures. "We are encouraged by the noticeable progress we are seeing over the last several months in the mortgage industry," said Anand Nallathambi, chief executive officer of CoreLogic. "During the last several years the industry has faced enormous challenges working through difficult and complex issues. We are hopeful that these recent improvements are early signals of revitalization in the mortgage market." Approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.3 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were in the foreclosure inventory as of January 2012 compared to 1.5 million, or 3.6 percent, in January 2011 and 1.4 million, or 3.4 percent, in December 2011. Nationally, the number of loans in the foreclosure inventory decreased by 145,000, or 9.5 percent in January 2012 compared to January 2011. The foreclosure inventory is the stock of homes in the foreclosure process. A property moves into the foreclosure inventory when the mortgage servicer places the property into the foreclosure process after serious delinquency is reached and remains there until the foreclosure is completed. The foreclosure inventory is measured only against homes with an outstanding mortgage, rather than against all homes. Nationwide, roughly one third of homeowners own their homes outright. The share of borrowers nationally that were more than 90...

MCLEAN, Va., March 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing mortgage rates moving higher amid positive jobs...

The latest stress test results showed banks are stronger but didn't detail all the risks to investors, Sheila Bair, the former head of the FDIC, told CNBC.