Realtytrac reports foreclosures are up in 54% of metro areas for Q1 2012.

First quarter foreclosure activity increased from the previous quarter in 114 out of the nation’s 212 metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more.

First quarter foreclosure activity increased from the previous quarter in 26 out of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas, led by Pittsburgh (up 49 percent), Indianapolis (up 37 percent), Philadelphia (up 30 percent), New York (up 24 percent), Raleigh, N.C. (up 23 percent), and Virginia Beach, Va. (up 22 percent).

The biggest quarterly decreases in foreclosure activity among the 50 largest metro areas were in Portland, Ore. (down 28 percent), Las Vegas (down 26 percent), Providence, R.I. (down 24 percent), Salt Lake City (down 22 percent), Boston (down 21 percent), and San Jose, Calif. (down 21 percent).

Lender Processing also reported mortgage deliquencies are down -6.8% from February and are currently 7.09% of all mortgages. Since March 2011 delinquencies have declined -​8.8%. That said, foreclosure inventory is up 0.1% and stands at 2,060,000. That is a hell of a lot of foreclosures that need to be sold.

For the year, foreclosure activity is down in 64% of metro areas.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced they will buy back mortgages which are delinquent:

The two companies are repurchasing mortgage loans for which borrowers have missed at least four months of payments. At the end of last year, Fannie had about $127 billion of such loans, while Freddie Mac had about $70 billion.

Now they are doing this supposedly because it's cheaper. They guarantee the underlying securities and have to pay interest on those MBS (bonds) and it's turning out to be cheaper to just buy the bad loans back.

Yet, Bloomberg reports:

Investors would lose about $12.5 billion in forgone interest.

Bond holders pay more than the face value due to expected interest payments.