What do you see in your local housing market this weekend? Blame shifting? "Two officers with the Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers defended their roles at an Olympian editorial board meeting Wednesday and said their industry was largely not to blame for the nation's subprime mortgage crisis. Incoming president David Erickson singled out the surge in creative mortgage products as fueling problems with subprime loans."

"'It was a very bad product,' said Erickson about some of the liberal loans available during the housing boom of a couple of years ago. 'When the grocery store has bad meat with E. coli do we blame the grocery store? We're offering product that is available.'"

Cancelled projects? "Pulte Homes of Greater Kansas City Inc., which began operating here in 1994, is beginning a phased withdrawal that will continue during the next two years, said Melanie Hearsch, corporate communications manager. 'We decided to focus on areas with higher demand,' Hearsch said. 'There’s a lot of inventory on the ground in Kansas City. It wasn’t making the best financial sense for us to stay.'"

"Plans for an upscale, 1,400-home subdivision near Parmer Lane and the Texas 45 North toll road have been called off because of a national pullback by struggling Dallas-based home builder Centex Homes."

"Centex has canceled its contract to buy 465 acres of the 750-acre Pearson family ranch, where it planned to spend $275 million to build one of the largest master-planned communities in Central Texas. The Pearson Place project was announced in February."

"Centex isn't the only company pulling back in Central Texas, which began as early as 2006, said Eldon Rude, local director for Metrostudy."

"'The largest public builders are continuing to face significant challenges around the country, especially in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida,' Rude said. 'As a result of that, they are looking to all of their divisions all over the country to take part in their move to conserve funds, and so even in some of the healthier markets, like Austin, they are looking to local divisions to buy less land.'"

Or fraud? "Investigators admit, mortgage fraud is hard to grasp. That it is a complex white-collar crime. Already dozens have been arrested, but no bust has been bigger than the one unveiled Thursday."

"Investigators announced indictments against 37 people. They allegedly took out $5.6 million in fraudulent loans on 17 houses in Houston and other parts of Harris County."

"'These individuals range from loan processors to mortgage brokers to real estate agents,' said Harris County Prosecutor Lester Blizzard."

Industry cutbacks? "For employees of District-based Fannie Mae, retirement is looking less secure. The company informed its workforce Thursday that it is capping the amount of money it will pay toward the premiums of retirees and their dependents for those who retire after Dec. 31."

Or black humor? "A subprime-linked investment has cost four Norwegian towns as much as 451 million kroner ($82.1 million) and left them wondering how they'll pay workers this Christmas. The rest of the country is cracking jokes."

"'Just imagine how many lottery tickets they could have got for 400 million kroner,' Jon Almaas, the host of Norway's most-watched television program, joked on a recent episode. 'Or, for fear of appearing old-fashioned, they could have spent it on health and education.'"

"The losses on securities tied to the U.S. housing market are providing plenty of fodder for Norwegian comics, who compare the towns of Rana, Hemnes, Narvik and Hattfjelldal to naive country bumpkins taken in by big city hucksters."

"Last weekend, more than 10,000 people took a multiple choice quiz on NRK's Web site to determine whether they were a 'Naive Northerner or a Slippery Salesman?'"

"'Where do you keep your money?' was one question, with the possible answers being 'Certainly not in a hedge fund; I leave that to the local government,' or 'A nice man with aftershave takes care of it for me.'"