Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Associated Press, "Shares of Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. fell Friday after the luxury homebuilder reported it fourth conscutive quarterly loss and said it would slash prices on homes across the country beginning late next week to try to sell off excess inventory. Hovnanian reported it lost $80.5 million in the quarter ended July 31, citing continuing problems of credit availability and high inventory."

"'Credit tightening in the mortgage market has reduced the number of qualified home buyers, existing home inventory levels remain persistently high in many of our markets and buyer psychology has been negatively impacted by a steady stream of news related to falling housing prices, foreclosure rates, and mortgage availability,' CEO Ara K. Hovnanian said in a statement."

"Hovnanian also blamed the tightening of lending standards in the mortgage market beyond those made to subprime lenders. 'This is leading to a further reduction in the universe of qualified buyers for our homes,' he said."

"'Right now the game is who can cut the prices the most,' said analyst Alex Barron. 'They have a lot of debt that they need to service and in order to service that debt they need to have some cash coming in the door.'"

The Street.com. "Revenue fell 27% to $1.1 billion, matching analyst estimates. New contracts dropped 24%, excluding those from joint ventures. The losses stemmed from $109 million of land impairment charges."

"'Our sales pace fell further in many of our communities, and we reacted by offering further price concessions and incentives. This created additional downward pressure on profit margins and led to additional land-related charges in the quarter,' Hovnanian said."

The Toll Brothers 10-Q. "Beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005 and continuing throughout fiscal 2006 and into the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, we have experienced a slowdown in new contracts signed."

"We believe this slowdown is attributable to a decline in consumer confidence, an overall softening of demand for new homes, an oversupply of homes available for sale, the inability of some of our home buyers to sell their current home and the direct and indirect impact of the turmoil in the sub-prime mortgage loan market."

"We attribute the reduction in demand to concerns on the part of prospective home buyers about the direction of home prices, due in part to many home builders' advertising price reductions and increased sales incentives, and concerns by the prospective home buyers about being able to sell their existing homes."

"In the three-month period ended July 31, 2007, we recognized impairment charges of approximately $139.6 million on communities in which we were currently selling and on land owned, primarily located in California, Florida, Nevada, and Virginia."

"At July 31, 2007, the fair value of the inventory in the 28 current communities and owned land subject to write-downs in the three-month period ended July 31, 2007, net of the $139.6 million of write-downs, was approximately $344.1 million."

From Reuters. "Home builder Beazer Homes USA Inc said on Friday it received default notices related to senior notes from U.S. Bank, the trustee for the notes"

"Independent credit rating firm Egan-Jones Ratings Co. said there was 'blood in the water.' 'The delay in the 10Q filing is a concern,' Egan-Jones said in a research note. 'Beazer needs to provide answers on its credit strength soon.'"

"Beazer said on August 15 its delay in filing its third-quarter Form 10-Q was due to internal probes into the company's mortgage origination business."

From Bloomberg. "IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the second- biggest U.S. mortgage company, expects to eliminate about 1,000 jobs over the next 'several months,' the Pasadena, California-based company said today in a statement. IndyMac also said it may report a third- quarter loss of as much as $36.8 million."

"IndyMac plans to keep 'prudently rebuilding our mortgage franchise which has been damaged as a result of the illiquidity in the secondary markets.' The company eliminated all subprime loans except those it can sell to U.S. government-sponsored enterprises, it said today. IndyMac also 'substantially cut all other non-conforming products' and curbed lending to homebuilders, according to the filing."

"The tighter restrictions was necessary because of 'panicked and illiquid markets,' IndyMac said."

From Barrons. "National City is hosting a conference with investors in New York today. In the first presentation it was indicated that the company would be taking a $200 million pretax charge related to its mortgage activities. The losses may continue into the fourth quarter, suggesting that earnings estimates for the fourth quarter are suspect."

"The reason for the 2007 write-off in the mortgage division is that the bank has been unable to sell the subprime mortgages that it has put up for sale some months ago. Consequently, these loans had to be placed back on the bank's balance sheet and written down."

"The breakdown of the loans being reacquired is as follows: $1.6 billion of jumbo first mortgages; $1.2 billion of Alt 'A' firsts; $900 million of seconds; and 600 million of loans in the pipeline."

The Telegraph. "Hundreds of estate agencies across southern Spain have gone out of business in a trend that experts say signals the end of a buoyant housing market that has fuelled the country's economy over the past decade."

"Many British owners of Spanish homes are now facing major losses with some experts claiming the property market is overvalued by as much as 30 per cent. During the last decade Spanish house prices have risen by more than 200 per cent."

"At the height of the construction boom in 2005 there were 7,000 estate agents on the Costa Blanca but 300 have closed this year, according to Enrique Llopis, honorary president of Alicante's College of Real Estate Agents. 'It is a symptom of the property bubble bursting,' he said. 'Demand is 10 per cent lower than it was a year ago and people are having to sell their property for less than they hoped.'"

"Eisuke Sakakibara, Japan's former top currency official, dismissed claims that the economy is still in deflation, saying recent declines in the consumer price index were because of companies lowering prices amid 'stiff' competition."

"Low global interest rates were the main cause of the recent financial-market turmoil, said Sakakibara, who is now a professor at Waseda University in Tokyo."

"'Central banks including the Bank of Japan should be blamed for the credit crunch,' he said. 'The monetary policy makers and investors enjoyed too much of excessive liquidity.' Low rates are also leading to a house price bubble in Japan, he said."

"Recent credit market turmoil has increased downside risks for the economy, but the U.S. Federal Reserve would refrain from taking action to bail out investors who made bad decisions, top policy-makers said on Thursday."

"Financial markets have been clamoring for the Fed to cut its benchmark lending rate at its next rate-setting meeting on September 18. But Fed policy-makers were clear to state that the central bank was not in the business to bail out investors who took risks."

"Speaking in New Mexico, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher put it bluntly: 'The job of the Federal Reserve is not to bail out risk-takers: You're a big boy, you take risks, you bear the consequences.'"

The Courant. "Bruce Rose wasn't taking meetings Thursday - at least not with the likes of Patricia Bullon, Al Ynigues or Christine Wright."

"The three never got closer to the president of Carrington Capital Management than the sidewalk outside the hedge fund's offices, where about 12 police officers monitored 50 or so people protesting the way the company is handling mortgages."

"'The CEO, Bruce Rose, has told us that if anybody asks, he is not coming out, nor are any of his employees,' Greenwich police Sgt. James Marr told the protesters."

"So there they stood in the hot sun for nearly two hours, shouting 'Predatory Lenders, Criminal Offenders!'"

"The scene in Greenwich was an unmistakable sign of the collision between two powerful and unwieldy economic forces - the mortgage lending crisis and the rise of the hedge fund industry."

The Connecticut Post. "Cindy Jenereaux, VP of ING Real Estate, said she called the police because she wanted to protect her company's property from the busload of protesters who gathered Thursday on West Putnam Avenue."

"The protesters said they came to ING's property for the same purpose, protecting property, because one of ING's tenants, Carrington Capital Management, is kicking families out of homes across the country, including in Bridgeport."

The New York Times. "Even when Leon Maldonado was getting his real estate license three years ago, he saw that the red-hot housing market in San Diego was beginning to cool. But he decided to forge ahead."

"Now, as the housing market slows to a crawl, those new agents and a good number of more established ones are looking for other employment."

"'When I tell people I got out, everyone understands,' said Mr. Maldonado, who now collects a steady paycheck, from a health care staffing company. 'It’s the best decision I ever made.'"

"'It’s a perfect storm for real estate agents,' said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of an online brokerage in Seattle. 'Not only have unprecedented numbers flocked to the profession, but at the same time you have the mortgage meltdown, the housing bubble bursting, and online competitors attacking the commission structure.'"