NAR - "Mortgage Problems to Dampen Home Sales in The Short Term" (9-11-07)

"Tighter credit for home mortgages will measurably dampen home sales in the short term and postpone an expected recovery for existing-home sales until 2008, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors®. Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist, said unusual disruptions in the mortgage market are dampening the outlook for home sales, notably for August and September."

The Washington Post - "Mortgage Mess Unleashes Chain Of Lawsuits" (9-11-07)

"When something goes badly on Wall Street, people wind up in court. And the subprime mortgage mess is no exception. A consortium of investors is going after the collapsed Bear Stearns hedge funds. Home buyers, shareholders and investment banks have filed suits against more than a dozen mortgage lenders. A working group at the Securities and Exchange Commission is examining accounting and disclosure issues, as well as stock sales earlier this year by executives at companies that since have been ensnared by the subprime mess."

Bloomberg - "Countrywide Shares Fall on Report Lender Needs Cash" (9-11-07)

"Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, fell almost 2 percent on the New York Stock Exchange after the New York Post said the company is negotiating a second multibillion-dollar bailout. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the world's biggest investment bank, and the New York-based law firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz are helping arrange a cash infusion similar to the $2 billion package Bank of America Corp. provided last month, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the Calabasas, California-based company."

Bloomberg - "Realtors Cut Forecast, Say Slump Will Extend to 2008" (9-11-07)

"The National Association of Realtors reduced its home sales forecast for the ninth time this year and said the housing slump will extend into 2008. Existing home sales will fall 8.6 percent in 2007, exceeding the 6.8 percent drop estimated a month ago. New-home sales probably will decline 24 percent on top of an 18 percent fall in 2006, the Chicago-based trade group for 1.3 million real estate brokers said today in a statement."

Bloomberg - "Retirement Funds Vanish as Bankruptcies Hit Tax-Deferred Scheme" (9-11-07)

"Marsha Slotten's bad news came in April by e-mail, from a tipster warning that the company holding her retirement nest egg had collapsed. After racing in a panic to the office of Southwest Exchange Inc. outside Las Vegas, she found a locked door and a sign saying the staff was 'in training.' It never reopened."

Yahoo - "Home Buyers on the Fence" (9-11-07)

"I recently wrote about how the mortgage crunch is playing out among homeowners in my area. In response, some readers wanted to know if they should buy a home now or wait in case prices fall lower. It's not a decision to be taken lightly. Prospective homebuyers who aren't likely to be in their homes long enough to weather the downturn could end up 'under water' -- owing more on a mortgage than a home's market value."

CNN - "Realtors: Home price slump through '08" (9-11-07)

"Home values and housing sales will take an even bigger hit than previously forecast and will not recover to their earlier levels throughout all of 2008, at least, according to the latest economic outlook from the National Association of Realtors released Tuesday. While the trade group sees gains in prices in 2008 from the current weak levels, it projects that the median existing home price will be $224,600 in the fourth quarter of next year. That would still put the price slightly below the record price reading of $225,000 in the third quarter of last year."

Yahoo - "Realtors Predict Drop in 2007 Home Sales" (9-11-07)

"A trade group for real estate agents on Tuesday lowered its forecast of 2007 existing home sales for the seventh straight month, predicting a drop of 8.6 percent from last year. The National Association of Realtors' revised monthly prediction calls for U.S. existing home sales of 5.92 million in 2007, down from 6.48 million last year. The forecast was below last month's prediction of a 6.8 percent drop."

CNBC - "Want to Refinance? Think Again, Brokers Say" (9-11-07)

"Some 57 percent of mortgage broker customers were unable to refinance their adjustable-rate loans to avoid higher monthly payments in August, suggesting the U.S. housing slump may worsen, according to a national survey on Tuesday. Subprime borrowers had trouble refinancing mortgages because loan programs were no longer available, according to a poll of 1,744 brokers in the last week of August by Campbell Communications, a Washington-based research firm. Prime borrowers were impeded by appraisals and high loan-to-value ratios, it said."

SmartMoney - "Regulators, Investors at Odds on Mortgages" (9-11-07)

"Regulators want banks to help subprime mortgage borrowers avert disaster by easing their loan terms, but for bond investors, the cure may not be better than the disease. Changing the terms of these home loans - which are made to risky borrowers with poor credit profiles - after they have been packaged into bonds leaves investors scrambling to adjust to new terms they hadn't expected at the outset. That type of uncertainty, the concern is, could make an already unpopular asset class even more unpopular."