Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "U.S. new-home prices will fall this year for the first time since the 1991 recession as a glut of properties for sale forces builders to offer discounts, the National Association of Realtors said."

"The inventory of new and existing homes for sale has swelled to record levels as the five-year U.S. housing boom comes to an end. Buyers are have a 'wait and see attitude' because they want to take advantage of price declines, economist David Berson said in the forecast."

"Eighty percent of Americans believe it is difficult for most first-time buyers to afford a home, according to an AP-AOL Real Estate poll. Many people, 59 percent, believe the situation is worse now than five years ago."

"House hunters can benefit by showing patience, some analysts said. Suresh Sreeramenen says he sees some some homes for sale in his Lake St. Louis, Mo., neighborhood sitting on the market longer than they have in the past and suggested that will shift more bargaining power to would-be buyers and away from sellers."

"'If I was in the market now to buy, I would be happy,' he says. 'But if I were trying to sell, I would be worried.'"

From Forbes. "George Wimpey PLC has blamed a spate of speculation in housing deposits for exacerbating the housing market slowdown in its US operations."

"The company told investors that its Morrison Homes division in the US was seeing a 10 pct dip in net pricing ahead of full year results, and its US order book was 28 pct below last year by volume and 35 pct by value."

"Wimpey's financial director, Andrew Carr-Locke said that the increase in houses coming back onto the market had pushed up housing supply, increasing the downturn. 'Speculators are flipping the product back on the market,' he said. 'I think the market underestimated the scale to which that was going on.'"

"KB Home said that it's delaying release of its third quarter earnings results because it needs more time to complete an ongoing accounting investigation. Also, the Los Angeles based homebuilder estimated a 32% plunge in net income as the housing market weakens."

"KB Home warned that its delay in filing the Form 10-Q could make it default on credit agreements. It expects to receive extensions to its deadlines soon, though."

The companies filing. "As of October 10, 2006, we had $600.0 million of outstanding borrowings under our $1.5 Billion Credit Facility and $487.0 million of outstanding letters of credit, leaving us with $413.0 million of available capacity."

"We currently anticipate that our 2006 fourth quarter will be consistent with our historical experience and, in conjunction with a planned reduction in investment in land inventory in the fourth quarter relative to the prior periods of the year, we believe..that we will have sufficient resources to meet our current business needs."

"San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen told California Independent Bankers yesterday that a cut in California home prices is almost inevitable. 'A significant buildup of home inventory implies that permits and starts may continue to fall and the market may not recover for several years,' she said."

From Dow Jones Newswires. "As the housing market slows, evidence continues to build that borrowers with less than perfect credit are struggling more this year than one or two years ago."

"In September, Novastar Financial, a subprime lender that packages loans as bonds and sells them, released its most recent mortgage bond performance report. A bond issued in April, known as 2006-01, had 7,173 loans remaining and had 91 loans in foreclosure and 29 already real-estate owned."

"By comparison, last year, a bond called 2005-2, issued in May of 2005 had as of October 2005 11,498 loans remaining and just 23 loans in foreclosure with 1 loan real estate owned."

"The report 'provided evidence that recently originated subprime loans are performing much worse' than loans originated in earlier years, said Kevin Jackson, senior mortgage strategist with RBC Capital Markets in Chicago."

From Yahoo. "Mortgage lenders make no bones about it: They are tougher on second-home loan applications than on primary-home loans. That said, however, the current environment for second-home lending is about as lenient as it has been in years."

"Don't count on your bank to take all of a home's estimated rental income into consideration. Even for a property with a long rental history, most lenders will only consider 75% to 80% of it. Some even take 75% after netting out your costs."

"If you don't need the rental income to meet the mortgage industry's ratios, you may not want to mention to your lender that you're thinking of renting. We're not suggesting that you lie on your mortgage application. That's a federal offense. But if you happen to change your mind, well, that's another story."

"'A lot of people go in under the guise of buying vacation property for personal use only to turn around and rent it out,' says Keith Gumbinger, of mortgage researcher HSH Associates. "I have never heard of people getting caught.'"