Hi Everyone,

Here’s the follow up from class today.

Here’s the Seattle Weekly story on the local Shawn Portmann mortgage fraud case. And here’s the latest: Shawn Portmann Pleads Guilty.

Here’s the quote from the Mortgage Bankers Association:  “We have caused extraordinary damage.”

There are always two bottoms to a housing market. Here’s a great article that explains the first (new construction home starts) and the second bottom (home values.

Here’s the article on FHA’s solvency. What’s the plan if the FHA mortgage insurance fund runs out of money?

Here’s a link to where I get all my cool graphs and charts.  Many thanks to Bill McBride who runs Calculated Risk.

There were questions on why the new GFE is requiring a “lender cost of funds” disclosure. All the comments that I’m reading are asking the CFPB to eliminate this requirement.

Great film recommendations:

A Separation
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Gone Baby Gone
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Hotel Rwanda
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An Education
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Margin Call
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Inside Job
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Inglorious Bastards
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Here’s the NYTimes story on the local maternity leave Fair Housing case. though the new mom was on paid maternity leave, HUD makes it clear that even if the maternity leave is unpaid….”The Fair Housing Act protects borrowers from being discriminated against based on maternity leave if the borrower can demonstrate that she intends to return to work and can otherwise continue to meet the income requirements to qualify for a loan.”

And here’s the latest mortgage fraud report from the FBI.