Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Realty Check, "I went up to Capitol Hill this morning because about 1,200 members of the National Association of Home Builders are taking their annual day of action up here. It couldn't be more timely, as several bills are working their way through Congress to help builders and borrowers alike and to right the housing market."

"I have to say I was a little curious as to how the builders would be received, given their bold move in February, when the association cut off all PAC money to Congressional members."

"On the hill this morning, I asked NAHB Chairman and CEO Jerry Howard if he felt at all strange coming back up here to ask for help, after his association had made such a brash move. 'The bottom line is--our members have felt that over the course of the last 4 or 5 years – Congress had totally ignored the housing industry ...finally our guys said 'enough is enough' - they’re not doing anything for housing--why should we play the game if they’re not going to be playing the game,' Howard said, pretty brashly himself."

"And without my prompting: 'We think we have access just by virtue of the fact that we are 15 percent of the GDP--we think that gives us access. This was our way of saying 'we need more than access, we need action across a whole range of issues.'"

"What about the quid pro quo, I asked? 'There is no quid pro quo,' he argues. 'There is the housing industry and there are a multitude of actions Congress can take to show their interest in the housing sector--they hadn’t done anything.'"

The Denver Post. "Protesters in pink pig suits hammed it up Tuesday morning outside the headquarters of MDC Holdings to oppose tax breaks for homebuilders. About 20 protesters demonstrated against the inclusion of tax relief for the industry within the Foreclosure Prevention Act, legislation initially intended to help struggling home owners."

"The protesters also have targeted Toll Brothers, Lennar, KB Home and other large builders and plan a protest in Washington, D.C., as the House takes up the legislation, said Jacob Hay, a spokesman for the Laborers' International Union of North America, which organized the action."

"'They are being greedy,' Hay said. 'They helped cause the mortgage crisis, and now they are going to Congress asking for a bailout.'"

"Reckless lending and building practices contributed to a housing bust that has cost the nation more than 350,000 construction jobs since 2007 and put 3 million homeowners at risk of foreclosure, Hay said."

"HomeAmerican Mortgage, MDC's lending arm, boosted the number of subprime loans it originated from 746 in 2005 to 2,233 in 2006, a 199 percent jump. During the same period, prime loans increased only 3.6 percent to 9,809."

The Tampa Tribune. "Three new reports paint a gloomy picture of the Tampa Bay area's housing market and signal more pain may be on the way for home sellers. Prices are down, sales are down and foreclosures are up."

"'If sellers remain stubborn on price, it will delay the recovery in home sales,' said Chris Lafakis, an economist who covers Florida for Moody's Economy.com."

"Meanwhile, another report shows homeowners continue to have trouble paying their mortgages in Florida, where foreclosure filings nearly tripled compared with 2007, according to RealtyTrac."

"Tampa Bay builders started construction on 1,277 single-family starts during the first quarter of 2008, down 43 percent from 2,240 homes during the same quarter last year. Single-family inventory, which comprises units under construction, finished vacant units and model homes, totaled 6,556 units at the end of the first quarter of 2008."

"Even though the reports look gloomy, Lafakis said the bad news is needed. 'It's bad,' he said. 'But we just need to take our medicine and start recovering.'"

The BBC News. "House prices in the UK have recorded their first annual fall for 12 years, according to the Nationwide. Nationwide said the price falls reflected a weakening market which had been hit by 'poor affordability and tighter financial market conditions.'"

"David Blanchflower, a member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee which sets interest rates, said in a speech on Tuesday that house prices could fall by 30% over the next few years if interest rates were not cut."

"He added: 'I am not suggesting that such a drop will necessarily occur, but it may. Cutting interest rates now may help to prevent such a dramatic fall.'"

"But the fall in prices, down 1.8% over three months compared with the previous quarter, will be welcomed by some new buyers who have seen prices rocket up by 45% in the past five years."

"'Prices have been rising consistently in the last four of five years, so a bit of a fall is due. It is what markets do,' said Peter Rollings, managing director of Marsh and Parsons Estate Agents."

The Daily Mail. "A three million pound housing estate has been fenced off after all 20 properties failed to sell in two years. The three and four bedroom houses were on the market priced between £119,950 and £137,5000 but all are still empty."

"And instead of being full of families, a six-foot barbed wire fence has been erected around the estate following attacks by vandals."

"Natalie Hudson, 25, who lives nearby said: 'They should knock them all down. All the kids smash the windows, and it's been like that for about two years. They are an eyesore now, and just like shoe boxes. They stopped even putting glass back in the windows.'"

The Guardian. "Inside Track, the company that spearheaded the buy-to-let investment boom, is to go into administration. The demise of the firm, which once promised to show customers 'how you could give up work and be a property millionaire instead,' comes as buy-to-let mortgages dry up amid tumbling values for British new-build flats, Spanish apartments and Florida homes."

"Inside Track blames the credit crunch for its collapse as banks tighten up on buy-to-let lending, effectively ending 100% loans. Profits for the group three years ago were as high as £12m, but internal management accounts for the nine months to January 31 this year show income of just £239,000, with a £97,000 loss in January alone."

"Inside Track Seminars was set up in 2002. It specialised in holding 'free workshops' ...lasting about two hours, these painted a world where anyone could become a 'property millionaire.' But it was a model that depended on a rising housing market."

"Founder Jim Moore, who spoke at the early seminars before moving to Spain, told prospective investors they could 'start from scratch, live on easy street instead of struggling for a living.'

The Calgary Herald. "Alberta led the country with the biggest drop in resale housing activity in the first quarter of this year. The Canadian Real Estate Association says MLS sales in the province were down 30.5 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2007, new listings increased by 36.2 per cent."

"As for sales, the data show it was the third consecutive quarterly decline since activity peaked in the second quarter last year. CREA president Cal Lindberg said it's important to remember 2007 was a record year for MLS sales in Canada."

"Marc Pinsonneault, senior economist with National Bank of Canada, said: 'The upshot is that the seller's market that had prevailed until the first half of 2007 has since clearly turned into a buyer's market.'"

"'Resale housing activity is trending lower in the four most active provinces,' said CREA chief economist Gregory Klump. 'Housing markets are becoming more balanced and price gains are becoming more modest as a result. This trend is forecast to continue as rising mortgage carrying costs and property taxes erode affordability.'"

From CBC.com. "Calgary's rental vacancy rate has climbed to almost four per cent, in part due to the slow sales of both new and converted condos, says a group that represents landlords."

"Almost 40 per cent of new condominium units built last year, as well as condo conversions that did not sell, are now being rented out, said Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Apartment Association."

"'The market is really restabilized and you know, right now it's like a balanced market,' said Baxter."

The LA Times. "As foreclosures surge, lenders might be forced to acknowledge that far more of the mortgages they sold to investors were never written properly in the first place. That's one analyst's conclusion from the latest earnings disaster at Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's biggest mortgage lender."

"One item that caught the eye of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. analyst Frederick Cannon was a $456-million provision to buy back flawed loans from the pools of home loans that backed mortgage-based securities."

"Most of the sub-prime and other higher-risk loans that helped stoke the housing boom were put in those pools. As of March 31, the company had set aside $1 billion to buy back such botched loans, up from $430 million a year earlier."

"At the peak of the housing boom, the company was lending $30 billion to $50 billion a month in new mortgages -- many of them, like those throughout the industry, based on misstated earnings of borrowers."

"'So when they set aside $1 billion that's a day's worth of funding,' said Robert Simpson, CEO of Investors Mortgage Asset Recovery Co. 'I'm not sure that addresses what the real problem may be.'"

The Columbus Dispatch. "The cold wind blowing off Lake Erie was nothing compared to the frosty reception awaiting National City Corp. directors at the troubled bank's annual shareholders meeting yesterday."

"The bank, facing millions in losses from high-risk mortgages, accepted a $7 billion bailout last week led by New York firm Corsair Capital. The group will buy new National City stock for $5, further depressing share prices that have declined 80 percent since July. In the past four months, the stock's dividend has dropped from 41 cents to a penny."

"'This is not the way you are supposed to run a bank,' shareholder Howard A. Kline, 75, said after the meeting. Kline said he's lost thousands of dollars on his National City stock. 'It's probably not going to be in my lifetime that the stock gets back to where it was,' he said."

"Kline said when he was younger, getting a home loan from National City was difficult. But in the past 10 years, management lowered lending standards to issue more high-risk, high-fee loans to people with poor credit."

"Tom Gray of Concord, Ohio, blamed the bank's move into subprime lending on former CEO David A. Daberko, who retired last year. He gave credit to Peter Raskind, who was named CEO in July and chairman in December, for facing the hostile crowd."

"'I think the music has stopped, and he's standing there with no chair,' said Gray, a 67-year-old former employee of the company."

"One shareholder, speaking remotely from an auditorium separate from Raskind, scolded board members for failing to oversee Daberko, Raskind and other top officers."

"'This is a 163-year-old company and in three short years it was practically destroyed,' said the shareholder, who didn't give his name. 'Managers didn't have the foggiest idea what they were doing and the board stood by. Current top management is not going to get any smarter. Care to comment?' he said to loud applause."

The New York Times. "In early February, Congress gave beleaguered mortgage borrowers a rare cause for celebration. As part of the economic stimulus package, it passed rules intended to make it easier and less expensive for people to take out hefty loans in the nation’s costliest housing markets."

"Instead, the effort to make it easier to get jumbo mortgages — loans over $417,000 — has yielded frustration and disillusionment."

"Since the rules took effect April 1, many prospective borrowers and their mortgage brokers say the new loans are either not available or the rates are far higher than they expected. Relief, they say, has been replaced by grief."

"The program 'is so much of a failure that it’s really unbelievable,' said Daniel M. Shlufman, president of the FCMC Mortgage Corporation. Mr. Shlufman likened Congress’s effort to 'coming up with a vaccine to a terrible disease, and then not giving it to people, or making it too expensive.'"

"'It’s a complete joke,' said Jose Lemus, president of a mortgage brokerage firm in Santa Ana, Calif. He said a buyer in Southern California looking to borrow $417,000 would pay an interest rate of 5.75 percent, while someone borrowing slightly more for a conforming jumbo loan would pay an interest rate of 6.99 percent."

"For a jumbo loan that is not conforming, the rate could be as low as 7.35 percent for someone with excellent credit, Mr. Lemus said, but the rate for someone with average credit could be as high as 9 percent. 'It’s getting harder by the day,' Mr. Lemus said."

"An influential trade group of the nation’s largest financial institutions, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, recently made a key decision that some critics say has kept those rates from dropping. The association decided that loans above $417,000 — even those jumbo loans now considered by law as conforming — would not be eligible to participate in the 'to be announced' market."

"Sean Davy, a managing director at the trade association, said that lumping the new loans in with the smaller conforming ones could have created enough uncertainty and instability to drive up rates on the conventional loans."

"Some prospective borrowers, like Nathan Menaged, 29, are skeptical that things will change. Mr. Menaged, a marketing consultant, owes about $574,000 on his Brooklyn home. He makes monthly payments of $4,000."

"'I thought I had some good possibilities for getting into something more comfortable,' Mr. Menaged said of the new rules, which he has been tracking with great hope since January. But the interest rates on them remain prohibitively high. If rates had fallen as he expected, he hoped to lower his monthly payments by $1,000 — money he wanted to pay for his daughter’s tuition."

"'It’s frustrating and it could become desperate if I don’t find an alternative in the near future,' he said."