CNN - "Home prices post record decline" (12-26-07)

" Home prices fell 6.7 percent in October, compared with a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 10-city home-price index. It was the largest drop recorded since the index began in 1987. It marked the 10th consecutive month of price depreciation and 23 months of decelerating returns."

Bloomberg - "Biggest Homebuilder Writedowns Are Yet to Come" (12-26-07)

"Look at almost any major homebuilder's balance sheet these days, and it practically screams at you: 'Don't believe Mr. Market. Trust me!' Either homebuilders as a class are grossly undervalued, or their assets are worth much less than their financial statements say. Odds are it's the latter. Home prices still show no sign of bottoming. And next month may bring lots of new confessions, when most of the companies report year-end earnings."

Bloomberg - "Ambac, MBIA Might Be `Buys' for the Few, the Brave" (12-26-07)

"Buy the bond insurers. That's a distinctly contrarian view, sure, especially after the year the bond insurers have had. Their fairly recent forays into subprime mortgages have put them in danger of losing their AAA ratings, which is what their business is based upon. Yet if you look past the headlines, and the accompanying hysteria, maybe things are about to look up. The stocks of Ambac Financial Group Inc. and MBIA Inc., which both lost about 70 percent of their value the past three months, are showing up on some securities firms' lists of buy recommendations."

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis - "Peter Schiff Replies to Deflation Rebuttal" (12-26-07)

"I believe that eventually long-term interest rates will head much higher to reflect significantly higher inflation expectations, particularly here in the U.S. where a lack of domestic savings in the absence of willing foreign lenders will put even more upward pressure on rates."

Seeking Alpha - "Are We Having a Housing Crisis Déjà Vu?" (12-26-07)

"As more families throw in the towel and head to foreclosure here and across the nation, the social costs of collapse are adding up in the form of higher rates of homelessness, crime and even disease. While no current residents claim to be victims of foreclosure, all agree that tent city is a symptom of the wider economic downturn. And it's just a matter of time before foreclosed families end up at tent city, local housing experts say."

The Washington Times - "Blame abounds for housing bust" (12-26-07)

"John Stumpf, president of Wells Fargo & Co., the second-largest U.S. mortgage lender and a survivor of the housing busts of the 20th century, blames today's crisis on unscrupulous lending practices, which joined in a toxic mix with outright greed and extraordinarily low interest rates to send house prices soaring 90 percent between 2000 and 2006. When the bubble burst, house prices collapsed by 5 percent to 20 percent in cities nationwide."