Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. "Pulte Homes Inc., the No. 2 U.S. home builder, posted a quarterly net loss Wednesday, chiefly because of charges related to the lower value of land and homes it owns. The first-quarter 2007 loss included $132.1 million for impairments and land-related charges."

"Home-building revenue fell 38 percent to $1.8 billion. The average selling price of a home fell 2 percent to $330,000. Looking ahead, the company said...because of 'difficult market conditions that exist today,' the company said it could not provide a forecast for the full year."

"'Overall, the homebuilding environment remained challenging during the first quarter of 2007, as elevated inventory levels combined with weak consumer confidence for housing continue to place pressure on results,' Pulte CEO Richard Dugas said."

"Ryland Group Inc., the biggest U.S. homebuilder for first-time buyers, said yesterday after the close of regular trading its net loss in the three months ended March 31 was $24.4 million. First-quarter revenue fell 34 percent, the Calabasas, California-based company said in a statement. New orders in the quarter plunged 26 percent to 2,989."

"Pulte, Beazer Homes USA Inc. and Ryland had a combined $300 million in costs for land and options on parcels they no longer need."

"'This is a much weaker year than in the peak year of 2005 and the prospects are still pretty cloudy as to 2008,' Robert Curran, an analyst at Fitch Ratings said."

From MarketWatch. "'We continued to experience extremely challenging operating conditions,' Beazer CEO Ian McCarthy said. 'Most housing markets across the country continue to experience lower levels of demand coupled with higher levels of inventory, resulting in increased competition and continued significant discounting.'"

"He said...that so far this spring selling season it's 'yet to see any meaningful evidence of a sustainable recovery in the housing market, and we expect current conditions will continue to put pressure on home builders' operating results.'"

"Meritage Homes Corp. first-quarter net income fell to $15.1 million from $79.7 million a year earlier. 'We anticipate that margins will continue to be under pressure due to competition in 2007, and would expect some modest improvement in demand during 2008, but are not relying on a rebound in 2007 to achieve our projections,' CEO Steven Hilton said."

"Before Thursday's opening bell, M/I Homes Inc said its quarterly earnings fell 87% from a year earlier to $2.2 million. 'Our first-quarter results reflect the challenging conditions that we continue to face in most of our markets,' CEO Robert Schottenstein said."

From Bloomberg. "Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, said profit declined by the most in more than two years as it lost money selling loans to investors amid a nationwide surge in subprime mortgage defaults. First-quarter net income fell 37 percent."

"Countrywide's revenue from making and investing in subprime mortgages fell by $400 million from the fourth quarter. Countrywide recorded a $33 million loss from the sale of subprime loans it produced, compared with profit of $149 million a year earlier. The company increased the amount set aside for future loan losses to $152 million from $63.1 million a year earlier."

"Deteriorating market prices also showed up in the lender's prime-quality home-equity loans in the quarter. The declining value of its retained home-equity loans hurt earnings by $119 million, it said."

From Reuters. "'Turbulent mortgage market conditions had an adverse impact,' CEO Angelo Mozilo said."

"Countrywide has tightened its lending guidelines, and in March stopped making some subprime loans that do not require down payments."

"Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc., the investment bank and brokerage, posted a quarterly loss due to the poor performance of its non-prime mortgage businesses."

"Friedman Billings is trying to sell First NLC, cited 'an extremely difficult operating environment for the entire nonprime mortgage banking industry.'"

"'The worst thing that could happen did in the quarter, with investors pulling money from the loans and creating a liquidity crisis,' said analyst Gary Gordon. 'Housing downturns don't take a few quarters, they take years. Prices for subprime loans aren't going to get better anytime soon.'"

The Associated Press. "Indymac Bancorp, the second-biggest independent U.S. mortgage lender, said Thursday first-quarter earnings shrank 34 percent as a spike in missed payments on home loans choked profits across the industry."

"CEO Michael W. Perry pointed to 'challenging conditions' in the mortgage market, marked by sagging home values, a surge in payment defaults, weak prices for mortgage debt and failed mortgage banks."

"The proportion of loans in Indymac's portfolio classified as 'nonperforming,' or doubtful to be repaid, more than tripled."

"IndyMac also said it expects second-quarter earnings performance to be 'similar' to the first quarter."

"IndyMac, which is also one of the largest U.S. savings and loans, specializes in 'Alt-A,' or 'Alternative-A' mortgages, which fall between 'prime' and 'subprime' loans in quality."

"Standard & Poor's said it may lower ratings on bonds from 11 different securitizations of home loans made last year, more than doubling the number of its warnings on bonds of so-called Alt A mortgages. S&P said it's considering the move amid higher-than-anticipated delinquencies."

"Early delinquencies in the bonds may be high because of 'aggressive residential mortgage loan underwriting, first-time home-buyer programs, piggyback second-lien mortgages, speculative borrowing for investor properties, and a higher concentration of 'affordability' loans,' S&P said, referring to loans allowing borrowers to initially pay only interest or less."

"Ten of the deals S&P said yesterday that it may cut were sold in the first half of 2006. The first Alt A bond that S&P warned about, in February, was issued by Countrywide and backed by loans from Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc."

"Moody's Investors Service cut the ratings on the payment-collection abilities of sub-prime mortgage lenders Option One Mortgage of Irvine, Accredited Home Lenders Holdings Co. of San Diego and NovaStar Financial Inc. of Kansas City, Mo."

The LA Times. "Fremont General Corp. employees lost millions of dollars on company stock in their retirement plans when the company was forced out of the troubled sub-prime loan business in March, losses that Fremont's board should have foreseen and prevented, according to a lawsuit."

"The suit contends that from 2003 through early this year the company engaged in unsafe lending practices in an attempt to boost Fremont's stock, a strategy the suit said 'began to unravel as, predictably, sub-prime borrowers began to default on loans in large numbers.'"

"It contends that the directors knew or should have known the stock was not a prudent investment for Fremont's Employee Stock Ownership Plan, which held the stock exclusively, and a 401(k) retirement plan where employees had invested about two-thirds of their savings in Fremont shares."

"The U.K.'s financial stability faces a greater threat than it did in July from low corporate lending rates and growth in markets that transfer credit risk, the Bank of England said today."

"Britons have taken on a record 1.3 trillion pounds ($2.6 trillion) of debt amid a housing boom where prices rose about 10 percent last year. Higher home values are 'increasing the equity buffer for most U.K. mortgagees and offering a source of refinancing for homeowners with unsecured debts,' the bank said."

"The bank's heightened assessment of the risk from consumer debt follows record bankruptcies exceeding 100,000 households last year as financial distress 'picked up sharply,' the report said. The 'significant rise' in loan defaults is due in part to tighter lending standards, the report said."