Some housing bubble reports from Wall Street and Washington. The Star Telegram, "Business stinks at the country's biggest home builder, and the CEO says it may get worse next year. The Fort Worth company is being as aggressive about reining in its business as it once was about growing it."

"The company reported that 4 of 10 customers walked away from their contracts. If cancellations continue at their current level, 'then it's going to be a much more difficult market than I'd want to spin,' CEO Don Tomnitz told the analyst."

"With Horton's high cancellations, half the company's units are now spec homes. As a result, Horton is spending heavily on incentives and discounting, reducing profit margins by 450 basis points."

"Home buyers have been pitting builders against one another, seeking more concessions and better prices. And Horton has leaned on suppliers and subcontractors, which Tomnitz said was helping 'big time.'"

"At a site last month, he said, a framing contractor brought his calculator for the first time in a couple of years. 'Prior to that, he would just come in and sit around and chew the fat and say: 'Here is the price. Take it or leave it,' Tomnitz said. 'So we've definitely got their attention now.'"

From Business Week. "The colorful CEO of luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers, Robert Toll, stepped forward on Dec. 5 with the claim that some housing markets might be stabilizing. His comments came as a slight disconnect from the company's quarterly news."

"Toll, the nation's biggest builder in the luxury-home category, has been taking losses on properties, and its customers have grown nervous and far more likely to abandon new contracts on houses as prices retreat."

"'You seemed like a very…I guess broken man last time. And here you are a new man,' Ivy Zelman, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, told Toll Tuesday. 'I'm wondering which Kool-Aid you're drinking because I want some.'"

The Sun Sentinel from Florida. "Toll Brothers Inc. said the U.S. housing market may have reached bottom as the largest builder of luxury homes reported the biggest drop in quarterly profit in 16 years."

"Area housing analysts aren't convinced that South Florida will see a housing rebound anytime soon. Delray Beach housing consultant David Levin said the problems that led to the slowdown, rising taxes and insurance premiums and a large inventory of existing homes for sale, are still in place."

"What's more, Levin said, the end of the hurricane season will not necessarily translate into more people buying homes, as some observers have predicted. 'I think that's a lot of wishful thinking,' Levin said. 'I don't see our market right now being bottomed out. The average guy still can't afford a house because of things like insurance and taxes.'"

From Reuters. "Experts have warned all year that a slowing U.S. economy and rising borrowing costs would lead to an increase in bad loans by homeowners and other borrowers. Grim comments from Britain's HSBC Holdings Plc about fourth-quarter trends suggest the experts may have been right."

"'We think the sky may be falling,' said Mark Fitzgibbon, director of research at Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP. 'Credit quality has been deteriorating for two quarters and we think the pace of deterioration will accelerate this quarter.'"

The Denver Post. "A Texas mortgage bank that employed 50 people in the Denver area abruptly closed its doors Friday, signaling more trouble in the subprime lending industry." "Sebring Capital Partners notified employees of their termination Friday. Carrollton, Texas-based Sebring employed 325 people, including 50 in the Inverness area of Arapahoe County."

"Subprime lenders are struggling with rising default rates. Eight percent of subprime borrowers are at least 60 days late on their mortgage payments, according to a UBS analysis of loans packaged and sold as securities. That's up from 4.5 percent a year ago. Banks are responding to rising defaults by closing or trying to sell their subprime operations."

"A former employee who requested anonymity told The Denver Post that Sebring, like other subprime lenders, was hurt by rising defaults. A major investor stopped funding Sebring's loans as a result, forcing the company to seek a buyer, the former employee said. Sebring had to close after a potential acquisition fell through."

"Sebring made loans of $209 million during the second quarter of 2006, down 11 percent from last year, according to Origination News magazine."

The Australian. "Renowned US economist Stephen Roach believes the US economy will slow to a near 'stall speed' next year as the housing market in the world's biggest economy runs out of puff."

"'The first thing you hear when you land in the US is the air coming out of the housing market,' Mr Roach said at a briefing in Sydney."

The Chicago Tribune. "The speech 10 years ago Tuesday was called 'staid and unremarkable.' Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, was addressing a black-tie dinner for the nation's ruling elite in Washington."

"Pundits forget that he expressed the headline comment as a question, not as an observation: 'But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?'"

"Economist Robert Shiller says he searched back to 1740 and was unable to find the adjective and noun used in tandem before Greenspan spoke. 'I like the expression, because it's a good term for what we often have,' Shiller said. More sensationalistic terms such as 'speculative orgy' or 'mania' overstate normal human foibles in investing, he said."

"'It's just exuberance. There's nothing wrong about being exuberant,' he said. 'It's irrational only in subtle ways. It's only wrong in that we don't quite see fully what's happening.'"

"Greenspan's legacy, which he will help shape in the memoir he is writing, will be framed by the expression and by what Greenspan, as the nation's central banker, did for more than nine years after delivering it. 'I think it was instructive. The problem was he didn't keep saying it,' Shiller said. 'If he'd have stayed on theme, we might have had a smoother ride and it would have been better for everyone.'"