Research by Bank of America Merrill Lynch indicates what many REO brokers and agents already know — seriously delinquent mortgages continue to take more time to enter REO status. A commonly used metric of mortgage performance is called the “roll rate.” It measures the transition, on a percentage basis, from one delinquency bucket to another, over a period of time. BofA Merrill Lynch said the number of mortgages that transferred from the bucket of current loans to “worse” (less than 30 days late), and loans more than 30 days delinquent, are continually on the rise … In a note closing out last week’s REIT activity, the Barclays analysts note the NAREIT Equity Index decreased 1.1% on a total return basis to 7,695 from 7,778 Year to date, the NAREIT Equity Index is up 17.9%.