TRY THIS YOURSELF - You’re On Notice! - The Stephen Colbert “On Notice Board” Generator -    - thanks to The Big Picture for pointing this out

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skew? - California Home Prices Fell 35% in May, Realtors Say - Bob Ivry - … About 38 percent of California home sales are of houses that were repossessed by lenders due to nonpayment of mortgages, according to DataQuick Information Systems Inc., a real estate information provider in La Jolla, California. … -   Bloomberg 
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CAROLINE BAUM - Feds Cast Scapegoat Net, Snag Cioffi and Tannin - Every scandal needs a scalp. - Bloomberg
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It’s Spend and Forget Taxes, Not Tax and Spend: John M. Berry - Bloomberg

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George Carlin was a unique source of financial advice - Karen Datko - MSN Money 

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W. Pa. man gets jail for stripping home before sheriff’s sale - MERCER, Pa. — A former Mercer County mortgage broker who gutted his $1.2 million home before a sheriff’s sale has been sentenced to three to 15 months in jail and must pay more than $174,000 to an insurance company. - AP Pocono Record

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No-money-down home loans still exist - NAOMI SNYDER  - Federal agencies take risk despite mortgage crisis -  …  “No private busness would accept the losses the government is tolerating through this (FHA) program.” … - Tennessean 

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Four years of gains in home prices wiped out - Case-Shiller: Prices fall in all 20 cities in past year; slimmer OFHEO decline - Rex Nutting - MarketWatch 

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Wachovia may plan to unload troubled loans - The bank’s hiring of Goldman Sachs to comb through the portfolio could foreshadow selling loans at a loss. - Rick Rothacker - Charlotte Observer

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Here’s one way to fix what’s wrong with the rating agencies: Get rid of them altogether. -  Tom Brown - bankstocks.com

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Asset-Backed Securities Can Withstand Higher Unemployment - Securities backed by credit card and automobile loans could withstand significant increases in unemployment from current levels before ‘BBB’ or ‘AAA’ bonds default, but downgrade risk persists, Fitch Ratings says. - Research Recap

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REQUIRED READING: Tightening Spreads Fail To Induce CMBS Celebration  - A.S. Rozens  - … Roger Lehman, head of CMBS research at Merrill Lynch & Co. “Right now, they are at 165 basis points off of 10-year swaps. At the end of last year they were 82 basis points off of swaps. In March, they were as wide as 305 basis points.”  … - Mortgage Orb 

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has 2 videos and more - Winners, losers and ‘friends’ - Are you a “friend of Angelo”? Probably not. Read the Tribune’s Thursday editorial here on insider mortgage dealings. It was written by Pat Widder.-  … Mozilo happened to be in Johnson’s office and Johnson handed the phone to him. Countrywide financed the beach house and, later, an investment property of Conrad’s. … - Chicago Tribune

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Case Shiller Futures Suggest 2010 Housing Bottom - The April S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are now out. - … I am sticking with 2012 for reasons outlined … -   MISH’S Global Economic Trend Analysis 

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IRA ARTMAN SECTION - thaks Ira:

Freddie Mac Mortgage Portfolio Rises to Highest Ever - Dawn Kopecki - Bloomberg
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The Past, Present and Future of the U.S. Mortgage Market - William R. Emmons - … There is no realistic prospect that the private-label MBS model will return to life in the near future. The most likely future for the U.S. mortgage market is a return to its past—namely, the bulk of mortgage funds will be provided by insured depository institutions and the GSEs. … -  St. Louis Fed

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Reverse Mortgages—the Next Hot Spot? - Heidi Kaplan - Senior Community Affairs Analyst - Board of Governors - Federal Reserve System - St. Louis Fed

posted by Bill Coppedge