"Forecasting is very difficult, especially when it involves the future."

•  Bill Would Place 18-Month Moratorium on HVCC
Two Congressmen have introduced legislation that would place an 18-month moratorium on the Home Mortgage Valuation Code of Conduct, a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac edict that — among other things — bans loan brokers and loan officers from directly ordering appraisals.

• Delinquencies Still Rising at Freddie Mac
Freddie Mac said loan delinquencies on its portfolio and guarantee book of business rose to 2.01% in May, an 8% uptick from the previous month, but a 229% increase from the same period last year.

• Slide in Treasury Yield's Could Drive Mortgage Rates Lower
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury dropped to roughly 3.5% late this week, sparking hopes that long-term mortgage rates soon could be heading lower.

• Bank of America Mess Jeopardizes Fed's Role in Oversight
Growing uncertainty about Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke's role in pushing Bank of America to go through with its deal to buy Merrill Lynch & Co is likely to delay regulatory restructuring plans and give ammunition to those seeking to prevent the central bank from receiving more power.

Nothing could make us happier here at MetFund than to see the fox not guarding the hen house.  Give more control and power to the same group that missed (intentionally or not) the last debacle?  Do you really want that?

•  With Moratoriums ending, Foreclosures rise 27% in the 1st quarter.  It is becoming clear that certain homeowners are not eligible for the government-mandated loan modification programs.

•  Sales of newly built homes sold at an annualized rate of 352,000 units in April, a tepid increase from the previous month.  The luxury market continues to suffer heavily.

"As measured by the ratio of debt to personal disposable income, household leverage increased only modestly from 1960 to the mid-1980s, from 55% to 65%.  However, over the next two decades, leverage more than doubled, reaching an all-time high of 133% in 2007.

New direction comes from the Obama administration and our Justice Department.  From now on, the government will favor more competition when one company attains dominance in an industry.

The essence of capitalism is competition, so it's an encouraging sign that the government is taking a stand for markets and against monopolies that distort the free enterprise system.

As consumers we need competition to moderate pricing power.  I may be "talking my book" here, but mortgage brokers bring competition to the market.

Now if they'd just do something about all those financial institutions that are too big to fail.