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.

Here is a link to our new federal mortgage regulator the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

There was a request for more info on China buying residential mortgage backed securities. I couldn’t find any articles from 2012 on this topic but I DID find one from 2007.  Wow. If we were pushing RMBS in 2007, I’m sure China has many reasons to not be very happy with us right now.  You saw the FHA default rates from loans originated during that time. Yikes!

Here is an article I wrote a year ago titled “Stop Blaming the CRA for the Meltdown.” You, too can wow your relatives at Thanksgiving with the facts when they try to blame the government for forcing banks to make loans to minorities.  WRONG 🙂

Alright….now it’s time for the various and assorted local legal cases.

Michael Hellickson lost his real estate license for the next 10 years.

I was unable to find a local fraud case in the name of Tom Love. If whoever asked about this one has more info….does he go by a different name?…let me know and I’ll keep searching.

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

Escrow closer behaving badly…..Hartman Escrow taken down by DFI.

Here is the press release posted late yesterday on 40 companies served w/consent orders for harming homeowners in WA State via foreclosure rescue fraud scams.

And here is Jim Siwek’s local HUD OIG website page w/his contact info.

THANKS for a great class today everyone! I know you have a choice where you take your CE class. Thank you all so much for choosing my company.  🙂