Some housing bubble reports from Wall Street and Washington. Paul Muolo, "We continue to hear tales that the subprime industry's loan buyback problem isn't getting any better. Bear Stearns has been identified as being one of the more aggressive Wall Street firms in terms of buybacks. One joke making the rounds goes like this: Bear Stearns doesn't buy loans -- it rents them."

"According to Friedman Billings Ramsey, the credit performance of securitized non-agency mortgage loans weakened in the 361 metropolitan statistical areas from August 2005 to August 2006. Default rates (90-day or longer delinquencies, foreclosures and real estate-owned) rose year-over-year among prime, alternative-A and subprime loans."

"In a sign that all ends of the housing spectrum continue to deteriorate, luxury builder Toll Brothers Inc. and conventional builder Beazer Homes USA Inc both reported order declines of more than 50%, and both are taking land-related write-downs in their latest fiscal quarters."

"'We continue to look for signs that a recovery is imminent but can't yet say that one is in sight,' said CEO Robert Toll. Toll's orders declined 56% in its fiscal fourth quarter that ended Oct. 31, while Beazer's fell 58% in its fiscal fourth quarter that ended Sept. 30."

"Both companies also took large write-downs on land and land-related options in the latest quarter. Toll said it expects to take a charge of between $50 million and $100 million in land-related write-downs when it posts its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results. Beazer took a charge of $23.8 million in land-related write-downs as well as a charge of $1.1 million related to severance costs associated with the company's overhead cost-cutting measures."

"Nearly 25 percent of the cancellations came in the Orlando, Florida and Northern California markets, Toll said."

"WCI Communities Inc, a builder of homes and tower residences, Tuesday said its third-quarter net income fell 73% from a year earlier. The home builder said its decision to abandon land option contracts resulted in a charge of $14 million in the latest quarter."

"Home builder KB Home said late on Monday it has received an additional notice of default related to its bonds from US Bank, which is the successor trustee of the debt."

"(Builder) Technical Olympic USA Inc. Tuesday said it requires additional time to file its Form 10-Q for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 due to a change in its financial-statements presentation and the expectation it will report 'a significant change in its results of operations' due to asset impairment charges."

"H&R Block Inc. said late Monday it may sell its Option One subprime mortgage business as the tax-preparation specialist looks to cut exposure to a slowing housing market. H&R Block also said it's closing 12 Option One branch offices over the next four months, reducing its loan operations by a third."

"H&R Block has already experienced problems from a slowdown in the real estate market. In August, the company announced an unexpected $102 million charge related to Option One. The losses covered loans it could be required to buy back should a borrower default on their first payment."

"HomeBanc Corp. today reported a net loss attributable to holders of common stock of $2.4 million. Patrick Flood, HomeBanc CEO, said, 'The Company's third quarter results reflect the continuation of adverse market conditions in the mortgage industry, specifically in relation to loan originations. As a result of current conditions, and our expectation that these conditions will continue into 2007, we accelerated and intensified our expense reduction initiatives during the quarter.'"

"Flood continued, 'With adverse market conditions as a backdrop, we expect to elect not to operate our public company as a REIT in 2007.'"

"For the quarter ended September 30, 2006, Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation ANH announced today an unaudited net loss to common stockholders of $3.4 million."

"During his last year as Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan often said he did not see a national housing bubble, but rather 'froth' in some markets. At the conference yesterday, however, he attributed much of the recent housing boom to a 'speculative surge' caused by global financial conditions that pushed mortgage rates down to very low levels until the last year."

"Greenspan said he could not predict when home sales would begin rising again or when home prices would stabilize. He said of prices, 'it's hard for me to believe that they can stabilize at the level they are now because we had too much of a speculative surge. We have to lose some of that.'"

"Greenspan defended the central bank's actions during his tenure, disagreeing with one former colleague about whether the Fed fueled speculative investment in housing by holding interest rates too low for too long in recent years."

"Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said in a speech Thursday that because of faulty price data during this period, the Fed's benchmark short-term rate was cut to a level that 'turned out to be lower than what was deemed appropriate at the time, and was held lower longer than it should have been.'"

"Greenspan disputed such criticism, saying the recent housing boom resulted...from global financial conditions that lowered long-term mortgage rates worldwide. 'In retrospect, I know of nothing we would have done differently,' Greenspan said of Fed policy during those years."