CMBS delinquencies in the U.S. have reached a new record high as a result of a slew of new late-pays along with below-average loan resolutions last month, Fitch Ratings analysts said.

Redwood Trust, the only firm to publicly issue Jumbo MBS in the past two years, posted a net profit of just $9 million in the second quarter, half of what it earned in 1Q11, telling investors there is a lack of quality mortgages to buy at the right price.

CLOs are finding new fans from among the ranks of another kind of vehicle that invests in leveraged loans — business development companies (BDCs).

With home sales anemic and an anticipated avalanche of foreclosures looming, policymakers are beginning to view renting troubled properties as a way to soak up inventory and put a floor on the housing market. And investors are starting to take note.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris reportedly subpoenaed Citigroup and its Citibank unit to order both to answer questions about the selling and marketing of MBS in the state, according to a Los Angeles Times report that cited a person familiar with the investigation.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has petitioned to intervene in the proposed $8.5 billion Bank of America Corp. private-label mortgage settlement.

Resource Capital is putting together a CLO that may be completed in the fourth quarter.

Issuance in the auto ABS sector year-to-date was at $34.4 billion at the end of July 2011.

TICC Capital, a business development company, has issued a $225 million CLO, its first, through a special purpose vehicle in which a wholly owned subsidiary owns all of the equity.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has reached a settlement with Bank of America, which releases the company from liability for failing to provide alternatives to foreclosure on 57,000 delinquent government-insured mortgages.The agreement, a draft of which was obtained by American Banker, was previously undisclosed. It has been forged on a separate but parallel track from ongoing settlement talks between BofA, state attorneys general and other regulators over alleged mortgage origination and servicing failures.

One interesting instrument that has been used to take the pulse of the nonagency securitized residential mortgage market has been the U.S. subprime credit default swap index, and recently Fitch Solutions' dropped modestly and reversed its direction, ending what previously had been an unprecedented rally. This trend has looked likely to continue, although it could be short term.

One tenet of real estate investing is that you never should sell a home in a down market. And one tenet of mortgage banking has always been that you don't sell servicing rights in a down market either.