What do you see in your local housing market this weekend? Legal actions? "The Massachusetts attorney general's office has sued Fremont Investment and Loan, once the state's second-largest subprime lender, accusing it of using predatory lending practices to sell loans to some borrowers who eventually lost their homes or had to file bankruptcy."

"Fremont customers identified in the lawsuit include a single mother in Dorchester who earned $1,800 a month and financed her first home purchase with a Fremont mortgage that had a $7,000 monthly payment."

Failed development? "The Portland, a 43-unit upscale condominium project slated for Minneapolis' Mill District, is the latest casualty of the withering condo market."

"In a recent letter to residents in the area, Brighton Development Corp. said it was canceling the project. The letter cited the retrenchment in the credit markets, which has triggered 'sudden and dramatic changes' in residential development."

Flipper resentment? "It Is a sleepy Loch Ness-side village that has long been a magnet for tourists from south of the border. But now there are fears that spiralling house prices inflated by incomers buying second homes in the area could have sparked anti-English resentment at Fort Augustus."

"After anti-English graffiti was daubed on the walls of a former loch-keeper's cottage, the picture-postcard location is now at the centre of a police investigation. The offensive slogans, including 'English Out,' were painted in white on the cottage beside the Caledonian Canal."

"One woman said emotions were running high as it was understood the cottage had been sold to English people rather than locals who were finding it increasingly hard to get a foot on the property ladder."

"But yesterday British Waterways, which is also selling a further three cottages along the banks of the canal, claimed the property had not yet been sold and remained on the market."

Housing bubble related news? "Fallout from the implosion of the residential-housing market will dampen what has been a white-hot commercial real-estate market, Valley economist Elliott Pollack told a group of commercial brokers and developers."

"The commercial-office market is getting hit first. It has begun to experience fallout from the subprime crisis as mortgage brokerages, title companies and financial-services firms downsize or close up shop, said Pollack, who was the keynote speaker at the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors' Southwest chapter at the Arizona Country Club in Phoenix."

"'We need half the mortgage brokers that we have,' he said. 'That's how much excess capacity there is in that business. Half of them are going to go away. Sublease space is going to be a problem.'"

"Watchers of the housing industry might have a new economic indicator to weigh: the number of would-be flippers inquiring about ways to insure vacant homes. State Farm Insurance Cos. has long offered standard homeowner and landlord policies for people renting out vacation homes."

"But the cooling of the real estate market has generated more inquiries from consumers who bought properties as investments, thinking they could turn around and sell them for a profit, but who now find residences sitting vacant because of the recent credit crisis."

"'The vacant endorsement measure is suitable "for people who have to sit on that extra property, but don't want the hassle of renters,' State Farm spokesman Jeff McCollum said. 'I can tell you, anecdotally, that we're getting more interest in this product lately in all the areas you'd expect -- Florida, Phoenix, Denver, heavy vacation areas.'"