KeyBank Real Estate Capital, the commercial real estate business unit of KeyCorp, entered into agreements with Bank of America and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage that will lead it to become one of the nation's largest commercial mortgage servicers. According to a company release, the KeyBank agreement with BofA includes a CMBS special servicing portfolio of about $14 billion.

Metro areas continued to post price gains in the first quarter, rising alongside national median price increases, the National Association of Realtors reported. Out of 150 metro areas the NAR tracks, 133 displayed price growth in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter a year ago. The association also provided first quarter data on national median prices and found the median price for an existing single-family home rose 9.3 percent year-over-year.

The national mortgage delinquency rate ticked up to 7.25 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis in the first quarter compared to 7.09 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported in its delinquency survey. While the rate increased 16 basis points from the previous quarter, it's still 15 basis points lower compared to the rate a year ago the same quarter. The share of loans that began the foreclosure process in Q1 remained at its record low level of 0.70 percent, which is the lowest it's been since Q2 2007.

A former senior bank official of a Delaware bank that received government funds pleaded guilty to bank conspiracy fraud, according to a joint announcement from the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) and the U.S. Attorney's office for Delaware.

About 96,000 borrowers who received a check under the foreclosure review settlement should expect a second payment since their checks were for a lesser amount than what they should have received. The second round of payments to make up for the difference is only for eligible borrowers who had their mortgage serviced by former subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Rust Consulting, the paying agent, announced the supplemental checks are scheduled to be sent around May 17. In a release, Rust Consulting said ""a clerical error"" led to the lesser amount.

In the first quarter of this year, the mortgage giant reported pre-tax income of $8.1 billion, the largest in its history. Fannie Mae attributed the improvement to ""strong credit results driven by an increase in home prices, including higher average sales prices on Fannie Mae-owned properties, a decline in the number of delinquent loans, and the company's resolution agreement with Bank of America."" The GSE also announced it will pay $59.4 billion to Treasury.

The Appraisal Institute joined other organizations for a two-day meeting earlier this month to form a coalition in an effort to develop and embed a single standard for the way properties are measured worldwide.

TransUnion reported the national mortgage delinquency rate recorded its biggest improvement since the credit bureau began keeping track in 1992. In the first quarter of this year, the mortgage delinquency rate, which includes 60-plus delinquencies, stood at 4.56 percent. The figure represents a 21 percent decline from a year ago and a 12 percent decrease from the fourth quarter of last year. In addition to the improvement on a national level, all 50 states plus Washington D.C. saw their mortgage delinquency rates fall over the last year.

LRC Asset Management, a majority-owned company of Loan Resolution Corporation (LRC), has made available a groundbreaking program that targets fraud and reduces REO timelines to less than 180 days. RealtyRecon significantly lowers code violations by verifying occupancy for REOs and provides weekly inspections from agents who work with the program.

Asking home prices posted the strongest gains in cities where job growth was also solid, according to Trulia. In a recent report, Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief economist, provided two reasons to explain the link between jobs and housing: job growth attracts newcomers to an area, who look for housing, and job finders often look for their own place to rent or buy. ""Young adults with jobs are much less likely to live with their parents than those without jobs. Furthermore, stable jobs will set this generation free to form their own households and start thinking about homeownership,"" Kolko added.